Most of our days were used up with work of one kind or another. We treasured time to read or make things. As far as playing, we really didn't much anymore. It wasn't only that there was no free time, there wasn't much in the way of entertainment that we could do that wasn't offensive to Yahweh. Besides, playing was conspicuous. If Dad caught us reading books (as opposed to the scriptures) or doing anything he considered a waste of time, he would find something for us to do. Aside from tending to his royal highness's personal maintenance, there were usually things to do outside.

One that Raphah got stuck with a lot was using a hard rake to rake decorative patterns into the driveway dirt. Or we might be ordered to rake under the edge of the forest and pile up all the twigs, branches, pine needles, and duff into a brush pile. Or to dig postholes for fencelines, holes which would never actually hold a post. His favorite task was to assign us to move piles of lumber. Often this involved sorting the lumber as well. If there was a stack of cedar 2X8's, a stack of studs in various lengths, and a stack of thin cedar tongue and groove, it wasn't enough to simply restack all the piles as they were, although sometimes that was all we had to do. Usually though, we had to sort it all. We might be asked to pull any of the cedar 2X8's that had any kind of rot, or to stack the cedar tongue and groove so that each length was separated from the others, and the studs would have to be stacked by size as well, pulling out any that were warped, or stacking the warped ones at the bottom, etc. Often the piles were moved to one place and then back again within a month or two. There was no point to the work except to make us subservient and to use up our energy and time. I didn't have to measure it anymore to determine the length. By now Raphah and I could both eyeball the lumber and tell pretty accurately what the lengths were.

If we wanted to read or do anything fun, we had to wait until Dad was asleep or off driving to go talk to people. We could get away with reading the bible or writing poetry for Yahweh or praying for dream interpretations and stuff like that. I could go pick wild herbs for tea, such as the wild swamp mint or wild strawberry leaves, or rosehips, and I could clean the chicken pen for my garden, but climbing a tree or running around for the sake of running around would quickly result in being assigned to some sort of chore.

One day he was gone. I'd been thinking for some time of making a work sled to haul wood and hay on in the winter, and possibly one another. I thought maybe we could train Fox to pull it. I had surreptitiously drawn out plans for it, and now I snuck out to the pile of douglas fir 2X6's and selected two straight ones, 8 feet long. I drew the curve I wanted for the tip and was using a bow saw to make this cut when Raphah caught me.

"What are you doing? You can't use that!"

I ignored him and kept sawing.

"What are you making? Dad's gonna be so mad when he finds out you used those!"

Still I said nothing. Eventually his curiosity overcame him and he promised not to tattle if I would let him help. I didn't want to let him help. I knew what would happen- he'd tell me I was making it wrong because I was a 'stupid girl'. Let him make his own sled! We ended up making it together, though, with a minimum of squabbling. We set the two 2X6 runners on edge and tied them together with 1X4's and attached a 2X4 to the top side of the runners, to pull it by. We used some of the cedar tongue and groove for the platform of the sled, because that would be lightweight. We both knew that the lighter the sled was, the easier it would be to pull. We got away with all this by selecting wood that was flawed in some way, and cutting off the flawed portions. Besides, it was a sled for work. Dad didn't get mad.