I liked it better this way since the life might very well be mine.After breakfast I put on some long underwear and then dressed in jeans. George and I...went out, hooked the horse trailer to the pickup and started the skidder and let it idle to get it warm. It's a hell of a lot harder to get a diesel warmed up in really cold weather and George even decided to put a wind covering over the radiator to help keep it warm.Once we had the horses and tack loaded, and were basically ready to go, we went. It’s a very nasty chemical. I’m going to start gathering wood. I want you to bail out the bathwater from the basin and refill it. Rain water would be best, but river water will have to do. Then take the stones and put them back in the fire. You remember what to do if something attacks?”“Throw horse dung and holler for you?”“Right.”Noah departed, heading back into the forest. Just like the day before, he was gathering hardwood from birch, oak, and maple trees. He moved cautiously, hearing. “So you love all four girls, and daren’t marry one for offending the others?” asked Tom Hancock, their trainer.“That’s it, Tom. I love all four, so we are going to live as a clan and not have the benefit of a marriage ceremony.”“Except,” Frances chipped in, “That we are going to have our own commitment ceremony, just among ourselves; to promise to be together for ever.”Tom was impressed at such forethought. “I like the idea of commitment. Far too many normal marriages lack that element of. She was ina pretty good mood, having decided to give herself the day off forstudying."Where's Karen?" she asked."She went home with a guy she met at the gym," I said. "She'sexperimenting with guy-on-guy sex." I don't think that's terribly respectful of you," Beth said."Well, I kind of had a lesbian encounter when I was at the gym, so Iguess it wouldn't be fair for me to complain." You - really? A lesbian encounter?"Her eyes were wide, with shock, and something else I couldn't.