The Old Way

"I don't want to get wild and crazy here. I would love to find a million dollars worth of gold but I don't want to end up hurting or killing one or all of us trying to get it out. If we are careful we can hopefully find several more dollars of ore easily. With that money we can make us a nicer place to live and maybe even put some money in the bank."

Tasha looked at Seth and said, "What about having someone come in and mine it right Seth? We could do that couldn't we?"

"I thought about that Honey. Right now we don't even know if there is enough ore there to interest a large mining company. I really don't want to get one in here if I can help it anyway. I don't want our little home torn up for the mining. I would like to see what we can do first. I suspect we might be able to take as much money out by ourselves as we would be paid in royalties if we got a large company in to do the work. If we can do it safely why should we give them some of the money we could get with a little muscle work?

"I know they have ways to get every speck of gold out of the rock using their chemicals and so forth but I just don't want to go that route if we can get out of it."

Tasha looked at Charity then back to Seth. "I don't want to see the valley torn up either Seth. I guess I was just getting greedy. If we do it ourselves and just make a little every year that would be fine. I would like to have a nicer place to live though."

She saw Seth's face cloud over and rushed to continue her statement, "NO Seth. I don't want or need any mansion. If we fix up the old store like you talked about just so we had a little more room I would be fine with that." She laughed and continued, "Heck, we already live in a better building than many of those on the reservation. I don't care about things like that. I just want enough dishes to cook and eat off of and a safe warm place to live. I don't care about fancy."

Charity looked over at Seth and said, "Me neither. I can be happy..." Charity gasped and pulled her hand to cover her mouth. She looked almost sick. She had tears in the corner of her eyes when she continued talking, "Oh, I'm so sorry! I don't know what I was thinking when I said that. I know I'm just a guest here. I'm sorry for saying that. Please forgive me! I know I have to go as soon as I can find a way to do it."

Tasha glanced over at Seth and moved to wrap Charity in her arms. She turned her gaze on Seth once again and glared at him. She looked back at Charity and buried her nose in her hair. The two women snuggled together while Charity cried.

Seth sat watching. He thought for a moment about how the last few weeks had gone. He liked his life here now. Sure he was working harder than he ever had before but he had a good life. He loved these women. He liked to be with them when they were working or relaxing around the place. They were almost a part of him already. He had his epiphany. It would be a lonely and emptier place if Charity left.

Seth stood and moved to join the women in a group hug. He said, "Charity I think I am like you. I had never considered the fact you might leave us. You are part of this family if you want to be. I would be lost if you left us Honey. Tasha and I want your input in these talks. Why do you think I asked you both to come and talk with me a few minutes ago? This is going to be YOUR house also. This is your home too if you want it to be. You are one of the family. You are one of MY women now. When we have room and can afford it I want to get us a King bed so we can all be more comfortable sleeping together in it. If you don't want to be one of my family let us know now and we will see about finding you a place where you want to be but I am really hoping you want to stay with us."

Charity broke away from Tasha and threw herself at Seth. She wrapped him in her arms and ground her titties into his chest. "Yes, oh yes. I want to stay with you forever and be one of your women Seth. I have been learning the old ways from Tasha so I will understand the rules here. I want to live with you and Tasha as one of your wives if you will have me or just as your concubine if that is all you will allow me. Oh, thank you so much Seth."

The small office building was just marginally spacious enough for the three to live through the winter in. It would have been claustrophobic for just one but it was all they had. They learned to adjust and get along. To his surprise Seth grew into his role of dominant husband to the women. He never had to become violent per se as legend said some of the Indian and early settlers did with their women. He did exert more control than most modern women would allow. A time or two he spanked a delectable ass when the women argued with each other too much. More often than not his calm words and loving corrections solved problems that came up.

As he had predicted he didn't have as much work in town during the winter as he had in the summer. Surprisingly however he managed to pick up several days work at some of the ski resorts in the area. He was actually working slightly more in the winter than he had during the summer. He found he began working at three of the resorts two days a week each filling in for an employee so they could work only a five day week. The small family now had more regular income than they had since Seth moved to Colorado.

While Seth worked in his jobs the women did what they could around their home. Most days it was too cold or there was too much snow to work outside so they worked in the mine. Unfortunately for them they disobeyed Seth and mined some of the ore from the walls instead of just scooping up the dirt for the dust and smaller nuggets. They were smart enough to be careful and never got injured seriously. They each had several scrapes, cuts and bruises over the winter. Once there was a minor cave in that they just managed to escape.

They had been working on a new shaft into the side of the mountain for ten days when Seth decided on one of his days off to check out the mine. When he told the girls what he was going to do they looked at each other guiltily. They tried to talk him out of going to the mine but he was bored. He wanted something to do and ignored them. They reluctantly followed him into the mine.

When Seth saw they had been mining the new tunnel he became angry. He was scared for their safety and angry also because they had ignored his instructions. He became even angrier when he saw where their new shaft had caved in and they had removed much of the detritus. Seth's face lost its color then flooded with blood as his temper rose. He grabbed the women's hands and pulled them out of the new tunnel. When he reached the old tunnel he sat on a rock and pulled Tasha onto his lap. He began spanking her and yelling at the same time. He spanked her and chastised her until his hand was in serious pain. He pushed her off his lap onto the floor.

Charity had been standing watching Seth spank Tasha. She was already crying in fear for her friend when Seth pushed Tasha onto the floor. Charity glared at Seth and rushed to comfort Tasha. When Charity got within reach Seth grabbed her and pulled her over his lap. He began spanking her using his other hand. He spanked her until she was a crying writhing mess and his hand was throbbing with pain. He pushed Charity onto the cave floor where she laid crying beside Tasha.

Seth sat and glared down at his women. His voice was shaking as he once again began speaking. He said, "Look, I understand you are trying to help. I understand that. I love you both and I know you love me too but you disobeyed me. I told you it was dangerous digging the gold out and you promised me you would only work in the main shaft. I saw where the cave in was in that new shaft you dug. That's how you both got those scratches and bruises last week wasn't it?"

Tasha and Charity looked guiltily at each other then they both quietly said "Yes."

Seth continued talking. He said, "I don't want to lose either of you. I can't stand the thought of you being hurt or killed here. I trusted you to do what you promised and only work in the safer part of the mine. If I can't trust you in this how can I trust you in other things? You gave me your word then broke it. A person's word is their bond."

Both women were crying even harder than just after their spankings. Tasha walked slowly up to Seth and wrapped her arms around him. He placed his right arm around her and pulled her to him. When Charity saw that she moved to his left side and he wrapped her in his left arm. Tasha said, "I am so sorry Honey. I really didn't think about it like that. We wanted to make you proud of us. We just wanted to help and got excited and carried away with digging out all the gold for you. We haven't dug any more since the cave in. That scared us enough we stopped and have only been working on what we had dug out before and piled in the main shaft.

"Please forgive us. We just didn't think about being in danger or what breaking our word meant. We just got so excited we lost sight of things for a while. We won't ever dig or work in the mine without clearing it with you first."

Seth sighed. He pulled the women closer to him and said, "Ok, I suppose there's no real harm done but it could have been a lot worse. If you ever do something like this again though...Well, I really don't know what I'll do but I promise to make a real believer of you if that happens. Maybe I'll take you back to Gramps and let him help me decide on a punishment for you in that case."

Tasha's eyes got big around and she gasped. She stepped back from Seth and said in a shocked, scared voice, "Oh, NO. Please don't ever do that. I don't even want to think about the way he would advise you to punish us. He and Granny are real believers of following the old ways as much as possible. I promise now you never have to worry about me ever again my Husband."

"Ok. Well let's see what you've done and see if I can figure out how to continue."

Seth walked back into the new tunnel the women had been digging and looked it over. He admitted he was not a mining engineer and he only had rudimentary knowledge of techniques. Most of what he did know was picked up on the internet before he came to Colorado or what he had seen in the old shafts.

Seth decided they needed to shore up some of the tunnel near the rock fall in the new shaft. He and the women spent several hours cutting and placing the supports. Finally after a lot of talking he agreed to let them clean up the area they had been working in. Their new tunnel was following the new vein of gold and rising slightly as the vein rose in the mountain. The new vein was becoming noticeably narrower and seemed to contain less ore than it had near the old main shaft.

In among their other work the women continued working in the mine. Seth worked there some also on his days off and some evenings. By the time the spring rolled around vein had played out in the direction they were moving. They had a large pile of gold bearing quartz waiting on Seth to finish cleaning and smelt down. He had not melted much during the winter and they had not run any of the dust and dirt through the sluice to clean the small chunks of dust from it.

The women had spent some of the winter working on the old store building when the days were warm enough. They had replaced many of the interior boards that needed it including all the bad ones in the floor. They had drawn up plans for renovating it into a small house for the three to live in. Seth had agreed to add a large bedroom, master bath and closet onto it. They were going to use the old part of the building for the kitchen, dining and living area. The old part of the building was 24X30 feet. The addition would be 16X28 feet. They were going to build a covered porch on the east and south of the building to mate up with the one already on the west. When all was completed they would have a very nice little home of a little less than 1200 square feet. They even made plans for adding a couple of extra rooms for if and/or when they had children.

They had decided to make the addition match the old building. Seth would use the dozer to pull trees he had cut back to the town and they would true them up with the small saw in the shop. They were going to build the addition out of logs as was the old part of the building. They would then insulate on the inside with Styrofoam like they had the office then cover it with paneling.

Seth made sure the women knew the job was going to be a long slow one. He had no intention of going into debt to build the addition. Of course with all the gold he suspected he already had more than enough money.

As the spring progressed they prepared the ground for their large garden and planted it. Seth also began working on the ore they had stockpiled smelting it down into the same size bars they had made the year before. By early June Seth was done smelting the ore. To his surprise he had 57 small bars. If they contained the same amount of gold as before they had mined 72.2299 ounces of gold. At current prices that would come to about $117,000.00. They would not be rich by any means but to them that was wealth beyond anything they had ever dreamed of.

They all agreed they did not want to sell all the bars at once. They had several reasons for that but foremost was the tax implication. Of course they now had to worry about how to safeguard their small fortune. Unfortunately for them the company they sold the gold to insisted on reporting the sale to the government so Seth had to pay taxes on his sale. They decided they would try to spread out the sales over several years to reduce taxes. Seth decided to keep his income as near the break point of personal exemptions as possible so it would not even be taxable. He and Tasha had filed the year before as married to make use of all the income exemptions possible.

Seth and the women made another trip to Reno with 17 bars of gold this time. They knew they would have to pay tax on this sale because Seth planned to continue working in town. They wanted the money from that sale however so they could pay for the renovations to their home. Seth decided to bury the remaining bars of gold in the shop under a heavy piece of equipment. They would dig up and sell them as needed. He would think of a more permanent solution later.

After a nice three day stay in the same hotel as before the three young people returned home and went back to work. The third day after they got home Charity came up to Seth and said, "Honey I have an idea of how I can be more help to you here. You remember I told you I grew up on a farm?"

When Seth nodded his head yes Charity continued, "Well Tasha and I were talking about how expensive food is and about our free time. One or both of us could try to find work in town if you want us to but I think at least for now we can help as much or more if we stay out here and take care of things. Anyway, I think we can turn a couple of the older buildings that are in better shape into small barns for animals. I would like to get some chickens to raise for food and eggs. I think there is enough grass in the valley that we could have a milk cow and maybe even raise a couple of steers every year for our beef.

Some of the land near the garden is good enough to raise a little grain we could use to fatten the beef and feed the chickens. I don't think we could raise enough to do the whole job though. We can cut hay from some of the grass land to get the milk cow through the winter. Please can we take some of our money and get the animals? I know Tasha and I can take care of them and the garden too. I really want to do this Seth."

Seth thought about Charity's proposal for a moment then said, "I don't have a problem with that. If it doesn't work out we can always sell the animals and if it does we will have some cheaper meat. I'm getting tired of the wild game and fish anyway."

Charity smiled and walked up to Seth. She gave him a tight hug and deep kiss. She stepped back and looked him in the face for a moment. Her voice broke slightly. She said, "Thank you Honey. You don't know how much it means to me for you to believe in me like this. I promise we won't let you down again like we did in the mine."

Seth took some time off work to do the logging and true up the logs for the house addition. He also repaired the two smaller buildings they were going to use for their animals. He helped them place the logs for the walls of the house addition and get the roof on. It took them almost 4 months of part time work to get the rough structure for the addition completed. Of course they didn't work on the construction every day. They had to take time out for the garden and other farming chores. No work was done in the mine. Seth had only worked on the dust three or four days during that time. He did get another ounce or two of dust and small nuggets however.

After the new addition was framed in Seth began working on his own projects while the women did most of the finish work on the house. He did help them with jobs that required more people or his strength and knowledge however. By the time they noticed ice forming on the water left outside overnight they had the new house completed. It was not pretty by any means. It looked like what it was—an old log building that had been almost doubled in size by adding on another log addition. It was weather tight and well insulated however. They had splurged and installed modern double pane windows and had purchased a large new, efficient wood stove for heat. All three were as proud of their new home as if it was a large mansion in the ritzy part of town. They had purchased a large deep freeze and filled it with food from their garden and meat from their herds.

They had furnished the new house with second hand furniture purchased from yard sales and second hand stores. Their only extravagance that way was a brand new king sized pillow top bed.

The week of Thanksgiving on Monday evening Seth and the women were sitting on the porch relaxing. It was just dusk and cool enough they were thinking about going inside when he first heard, then saw a newer F250 Super Crew truck coming up their road. This was the first uninvited visit he could remember in the little over two years he had lived here.

For some reason Seth felt his anger surge. He was sure the driver was one of those assholes that thought no trespassing and private property signs were meant for everyone but them. His eyes were flashing in anger. He stood and moved out into the drive to meet and give the driver a piece of his mind. The sun glared off the tinted windows just enough he could not see the occupants of the vehicle well. The vehicle stopped and the engine was turned off. Seth set himself as he watched the door on each side open.

Tasha and Charity stood on the porch watching. All at once Seth was almost running toward the truck. He headed toward the woman who had exited the passenger side. When he got there they heard him yell, "MOM," just before he wrapped the older woman in his arms. He picked her up and twirled her around before setting her back down on her feet. By then the man who had been driving had walked up beside Seth. Seth turned and wrapped him in his arms for a moment.

Seth stepped back and said, "What are you doing here? Why didn't you tell me you were coming? How long are you going to stay?" He began pulling his mother toward the house and the two young women.

Tasha and Charity watched with smiles on their faces. When the man and woman saw them they got quizzical looks on their faces. Seth saw his mother watching Tasha and Charity. He smiled and said without thinking, "Mom, Dad. This is my wife Tasha and my other wife Charity. We're so glad to see you."

Seth stopped walking when he felt his mother come to a complete stop. He turned to look at her. She was slack jawed. She looked like the proverbial pole axed steer. She licked her lips and looked at Seth then said, "What? Did you say BOTH of these women are your wife?"