“You’ve got some training of your own to do,” Adams pointed out, grinning.
“And I’ll start tonight,” Mike replied. “I’ve been considering how to do it. Right that is. Gor… isn’t the right way in my opinion.”
“It’s got its attractions, though,” Adams said with another grin. The Gor books were still classics of bondage fantasy, emphasis on fantasy.
“I’m going to go check on the dam,” Mike said. “Not much to see here for a while. Call me if there are any problems.”
“Will do, boss,” Adams said. “You go… check on the dam.”
Mike headed for the Expedition, rolling his eyes as he went.
“Got the pour done,” Meller said, gesturing at the weir. The concrete structure was about six feet high and thirty feet long, a rectangular box with rectangular openings in the bottom and a broad, triangular, concrete platform in front of it. “It will take about a week to set enough to start dumping on it, but we’re starting with the edges now.”
He spoke over the sound of a truck as it climbed up the grade to the dump point. The broad platform above the dam had been partially dug and partially blasted out and was now wide enough that the truck could make half a three-point turn so its load would dump over the side. As Mike watched, it backed into position and dropped a load of loam over the side. As soon as the dirt was dumped, it dropped the cargo bay and began turning to go back down the hill.
As the truck drove away, the older Keldara men who were working on the project began spreading the dirt out. Some of that was done with a small bulldozer but mostly it was spade work. As soon as the dirt was spread out evenly, three of the Keldara started pressing it down with hand compactors.
“As long as the rain holds off we can keep this up,” Meller continued.
“Know anything about microbreweries?” Mike asked, distantly.
“Not a thing,” Meller said, frowning. “Except I like their beer. The Keldara beer is better, though. Why?”
“I want to build one,” Mike said. “I had Genadi plant most of the new fields in barley. I’m not sure if that will give us enough to run a decent microbrewery, but it will be a start.”
“I can build the building,” Meller said, definitely. “But I have no idea how it should be laid out and I don’t know anything about how they work except that they have big copper vats.”
“Same here,” Mike said, sighing. “I guess I’ll just have to do some research.”
“Delegate,” Meller said. “Vanner’s underutilized at the moment. If you get him to find a design, I’ll put it together. I suppose the Keldara women can figure out how to increase their output.”
“I’d better go talk to Mother Lenka about that,” Mike said. “You got enough people?”
“For now,” Meller said, shrugging. “This is more or less makework until the concrete sets.”
“Okay, see you later,” Mike replied.
Chapter Twenty-Six
“Hello, Mother Lenka,” Mike said, finding the Keldara woman in the back of the Devlich house.
“Kildar,” Mother Lenka said. She was seated on a stool in the kitchen, watching the younger women work.
“I’ve got a question for you,” Mike said. “Care to go for a ride?”
“Of course, Kildar,” Mother Lenka said, getting to her feet. “I can explain to you how to train your women.”
“Pass,” Mike said, grinning. The old woman was a terror about “explaining” things.
“Larissa,” Mother Lenka continued, “keep these lazy bones at work; the men will be wanting their food on time.”
“Yes, Mother Lenka,” one of the Keldara women, presumably Larissa, replied, nodding at her.
Mike drove the old woman up to the bench over the Keldara compound.
“What are we looking at?” the old woman asked as they got out of the SUV.
“How much beer do you make every year?” Mike asked, walking through the brush covering the bench. Something had been up here within the last fifteen years or so, judging by the size of the saplings that grew on the bench.
“About three thousand liters,” Mother Lenka said, frowning. “And let me tell you, it’s not easy. We start after the harvest and work on it most of the winter.”
Mike nodded and continued down a game trail to the end of the bench. There was another of the innumerable streams where the bench curved into the mountainside. He made a note to ensure it was spring fed, but most of them were. They trickled off in high summer, he’d been told, but never quite went away.
“I’m thinking of trying to make enough to sell,” Mike said, coming back out of the brush to where Mother Lenka was standing.
“We already do,” Mother Lenka pointed out, gesturing at the town.
“More than that,” Mike said. “Much more. Enough to export.”
“Never happen,” Mother Lenka snapped. “You are talking about…”
“Ten thousand liters, minimum,” Mike said. “Over what is usually made.”
“There isn’t enough time in the world,” the woman protested. “Or enough stoves to bake the barley!”
“We’ll build a brewery,” Mike said. “Up here. With water on tap. The barley will be automatically fed to the very large ovens. And the women will work it, which will give them a source of income.”
“Ah,” Mother Lenka said, giving him a toothless smile. “Now I understand. But there is a problem.”
“And that is?” Mike asked, raising an eyebrow.
“There is an undertaste to the brew, yes?” Mother Lenka asked, walking into the brush. “This bush,” she said, lifting a low growing bush that looked something like a blueberry bush. “This makes the tiger berries. We put some of them, crushed, in the mix. That is what gives it the slight tang you don’t get with true beer. Very old Keldara secret. But we’d have to have… very much of these berries. The women gather them in fall, but we could never gather enough. Without the berries, it won’t be the beer you know so well.”
“For this year,” Mike said, musingly, “we’ll just have to have an all-hands evolution to gather them. Get as many as we can gathered. I’ll talk to Genadi about planting some more. I don’t know how fast they grow, but we can have fields planted if we have to.”
“The best come from the wild mountains,” Mother Lenka sniffed.
“But it’s not for the Keldara,” Mike said, smiling. “It’s for barbarians that don’t know what real beer tastes like.”
“Well, I suppose barbarians will drink anything,” Mother Lenka said with a sniff. “I have tasted a can of something called ‘light beer.’ It is… bad.”
“Love in a small boat beer,” Mike said, cryptically.
Mother Lenka raised an eyebrow then cackled.
“Yes, Kildar,” the old woman replied, still chuckling. “I get it. Fucking close to water, yes? Well, we will give them something that is not close to water. The tiger berry is a… what you call it? Aphrodisiac, yes? That will give them some zip in their peckers.”
“Vanner?” Mike asked, sticking his head in the commo room.
“Intel,” one of the Keldara women on duty said, pointing to the next room.