Finally, everyone left except Chris, Stacy, Jon, Gabby, and Tom. We sat around my kitchen table, chatting. I asked for feedback from the meeting, and we were astounded when Jon was the first one to agree with everything I had said. I’ve always teased Jon and called him the flaming liberal of the family, but he got really solemn, and explained that even though he felt a bit more optimistic about our economic stability than me, he still felt it was just a matter of time before it all came crashing down. He also thanked me for giving away all the bedrooms in his and Chris’s wings. I laughed, and told him I had a plan for that, too. I asked what if I were to get my hands on a few RV travel trailers? We had plenty of space and that would help with the privacy issues for families. I knew that Marcie had an RV, and I was pretty sure Patty and Bill did, too.
Just then, I had another thought. “Tom, do you know where we can get a GP medium military tent, preferably with a heater? I am thinking we need a big place when we all meet together, but it is starting to get pretty chilly, A GP set up in the field next to the house would make a great meeting place, and it can be heated to keep it fairly comfortable.” Tom just shook his head, smiled, pulled out his notepad, and made a note.
Chapter 5
I woke up early Friday morning to the sounds of heavy machinery outside my window. True to his word, Tom was outside directing a parade of trucks pulling in a long line of Conexes. I quickly dressed and went out to see the biggest 40 foot conex being juggled into place behind the barn.
“I was able to get the forty footer for the armory. It’s twenty feet wide instead of fourteen, but I’m sure we will fill up the space” Tom stated. “I also was able to get ten of the twenty footers for storage. We can put four of them out beyond the pasture next to the barn, and the other six can go on either side of the driveway to provide berm protection for the house and driveway. Marty is at the lumberyard right now with Tim, and they are getting the materials for the framework so the concrete can be poured around the armory this afternoon. Jose is in the field where you wanted to put in the GP Medium. He is leveling the ground so we can pour a concrete pad there. Instead of a GP medium, I ordered a metal pole barn. I think that will be more durable than a tent, certainly easier to heat, and we can use it for a lot of things. It will be delivered later today. It will probably take a few of us to get it put together, but it will be a lot sturdier and safer than a GP. Oh, and Janet said to tell you she will be over as soon as she gets her kids to school.
“I’m headed over to the rental place as soon as these conexes are placed to get a backhoe and get them covered. They should hopefully be ready to start using by Monday or Tuesday. We got the generators in place yesterday, and hopefully we can get the tanks for diesel installed some time this weekend and get them filled on Monday. When I went home last night, I checked on the two water tanks in my yard, and I think they will work. It will probably be the end of next week before I can get to them, though. Oh, and I brought those two beds over and put them both in the West Wing.”
My head was starting to spin with the sheer amount of work this man had accomplished in less than twenty-four hours. I needed to get my morning animal care chores finished so I could get onto the next task. Suddenly I stopped. “Tom, do you think we need more animals to sustain us? I wonder if I should try to get a few more goats, cows, and maybe even some pigs. I am going to collate the papers everyone filled out to see what other animals will be coming, and then maybe I can try to fill in any gaps.”
“Good idea. Having the animals will help add to the food we have available. You also might want to think about adding some rabbits, since they can provide a lot of meat with little effort.”
I jumped when the cell phone in my pocket started buzzing. Janet was calling, letting me know she would be at the house within the next hour or so. I agreed to wait on my animal chores until she got there and instead went into the house and grabbed the stack of papers from last night. As I started tallying the sheets, I was surprised to see we had quite the menagerie. There were a total of seven dogs, six cats, five goats, eleven horses, six pigs, thirty-six chickens, six rabbits, three dairy cows, two donkeys, and Sharkie the goldfish. What, no partridge in a pear tree? I thought we needed to increase the number of cows, pigs, rabbits, and goats to start. I would talk to Clark about getting a few more horses, too. That means I needed to increase the amount of feed I ordered. I ought to do that today. First, though, I needed to call Clark. I sat down at my desk and dialed his number.
“Hi, Clark, I hope I’m not interrupting you too badly by calling this early! I need your advice. I want to add a couple of cows, horses, goats, rabbits, and pigs to our stock. I was hoping you could give me some direction on where to get them. I want to get them right away in order to get more feed ordered.”
“That is a great idea! I know a farmer, one of my clients, actually, who has a number of animals for which he is trying to find homes. I know he has horses, pigs, and goats. I also know a lady down the road who raises and sells rabbits. For cows, you might try calling the Hegley ranch – they sell cows from time to time. I know they have been having a rough time lately, and they may be willing to sell a few.” Clark agreed to call the rabbit lady and the farmer. I told him if he thought the price was fair, to go ahead and make the purchase for me. Clark also said that after lunch, unless they had an emergency, he and the girls would be headed over here to look at the barn and start getting it and the pastures ready for an influx of animals. He said Maureen got off work at three and would be over as soon as she got off to help. This was great news. I was starting to feel a little overwhelmed by all of the activity snowballing around me.
After thanking Clark, I then called the Hegley ranch. The ranch manager invited me to come over to the ranch later this morning so we could talk. Just then, Janet drove up to the house. We went out to the barn and started the morning chores. I was surprised that she was not bothered by the strong fragrances coming from the pens and coop. She told me that one of her childhood dreams was to have a farm, and she would go to the state fair every year as a kid and hang around the animal displays. She said the barn smelled like her dreams, and even though it was stinky, it was stinky in a good way. I just looked at her, and suddenly we both started laughing. After getting cleaned up from animal chores, we sat down in the kitchen with a cup of tea.
“What do you need me to do to help? I am here all day, and we’ll all be here all day tomorrow, too.” I asked her to finish collating the lists from last night, explaining I had already tallied the animals, but nothing else. I told her I needed to run to the Hegley Ranch to talk about getting some more animals, and then I needed to run to the bank in town to start the process of cashing in one of my 401K accounts. I also needed to go by the ranch store in town and get more canning jars. I warned her that Clark and the girls were coming over after lunch, but told her I would probably be back by then. I also told her to make herself at home and if she needed anything, to call me or to check with Tom. I told her I thought there were some things being delivered, but Tom would know and not to worry about them.
A few minutes later, I headed down the road to the Hegley Ranch. The Hegley family raised both beef and dairy cows, and had a huge spread. I know that Mr. Hegley had been in the hospital recently and was not doing well at all. Of course, I’m not allowed to let on that I know that because of patient confidentiality, but I knew he was suffering from a terminal condition. I wondered if that was why the ranch wasn’t doing well. When I arrived, I was met at the gate by Brock Chandler, the ranch manager. He asked me how many animals I was looking for and what I was willing to pay. After about a half hour of haggling, we came to an agreement for eight cows and one bull. All animals were healthy, up on shots, and two of the cows were pregnant. The only point of contention was he wanted to be paid in cash. Well, I was going to the bank next anyway, so I agreed to come back this afternoon with help and a livestock trailer and would bring him his cash. I did not get great vibes from this guy, and did not want hi
m to see where I lived or the beehive of activity my farm had become.
At the bank, I had to argue for almost forty minutes with the bank manager to roll one of my 401Ks over into my checking account. I took a substantial tax penalty, but then, I knew I would. I decided that since the bank manager gave me such a hard time to get my own money, I would take out double what I needed to pay for the cows. I thought he would go into convulsions when I handed him the withdrawal slip. It would have been almost funny, except I kept wondering why it is such a big deal for a bank to hand over that much cash – unless they didn’t have a lot of cash available. I know that most banks are only required to keep three percent of all checking account balances on hand as cash in the vault. Still, that should be more than enough for when people want to take out a large amount. No, I can’t worry about that right now. Finally, cash in hand, I left the bank.
While I was in town, I swung by the cleaners to pick up my winter stuff. It cost a lot more than I thought it would – did prices go up that much or did I just not remember correctly from last year? My next stop was to the Ranch Store on the far side of town. I rarely shopped there, but heard that they had great prices on canning jars. At $7 per case, that was a good price, and I bought all of the pint and quart sized jars they had and quite a few cases of half-gallons, too. I also bought almost all of their stock of lids and rings. I was really excited to find they had a good stock of Tattler reusable lids, too. It’s a good thing I added that 401K money to my checking account, because this will definitely make a dent! Of course, I used my credit card to make the purchase. In the event of a Zombie Apocalypse, I wouldn’t need to worry about it, and if life went on as usual, the extra funds in my checking account would help pay the bill.
My last stop was the furniture store in town. I was surprised to see a “going out of business sale” sign in the window – happy for me, but horrified to see yet another business closing. I hurried in and found three queen beds on sale for pennies on the dollar. I also got three dressers at ridiculously low prices. They also had mattresses on sale, and had several twin mattresses for $25 each! There were six in the stack, and I bought all six. I paid for my purchases and made arrangements for them to be delivered this afternoon.
On the way home, I decided to stop by my favorite taco fast food restaurant to grab some lunch. I was shocked to see the restaurant was closed. It had been a few weeks since I drove past this particular restaurant, but I had no idea they were closing. I started paying attention to the little strip malls on either side of me, and noticed a fair number of the stores were closed and boarded up. This was not a good sign, and not what I was expecting. It also seemed there were a lot of people just hanging around on the streets near some of these closed stores. I was beginning to feel pretty nervous and decided it was time for me to head for home.
When I got there, the conex delivery trucks were gone, but there was a cement truck pouring a pad on the pasture. I waved at Tom as I passed him on the driveway, and he flagged me down.
“Can you call and order a couple of trucks of gravel to be delivered ASAP? Those conex trucks really tore up the driveways, and we need to get some gravel down before we get any weather. Just have them dump it before they get to the conexes on the driveway, and I’ll use the backhoe to spread it out.” I got clarification from Tom on exactly what kind of gravel and how much to order and then drove on up to the house. When I walked in the front door, I was surprised to see that in spite of all of the activity, the house was clean, and I could smell the heavenly scent of fresh-baked bread.
Janet came out of the kitchen and said she hoped I didn’t mind her doing some cleaning and baking, but she noticed there was not a lot of bread left, so she was making some to go with the stew she made for supper. She said Clark and the girls just arrived a few minutes ago with a trailer with some animals on it. I quickly called the rock place and put in my emergency gravel order, which they agreed to deliver this afternoon. I then invited Janet to come with me to the barn and we went to find Clark. Sure enough, he had a livestock trailer attached to his truck and had just finished offloading four of the fattest pigs I have ever seen. Looking out the back of the barn, I saw one of the girls with four horses in the corral, trying to introduce them to my horses. Zoe and Phoebe were busy loading rabbits from a cage into a new rabbit hutch next to the chicken coop.
“Holy cow, Clark! Looks like you’ve been busy!” He laughed, and replied that this was all in a day’s work for him. He told me he was unable to get goats, but he did get four pregnant pigs, a few rabbits, and four horses. He was excited that he was able to include tack for the horses in the price. I asked him if he would be willing to let me use the livestock trailer, and if he would come with me to get the cattle, and he agreed.
It took us about 20 minutes to get to the Hegley Ranch, and while we drove, I asked Clark his opinion of the ranch manager. Clark did not mince words, and said simply that he thinks the guy is a crook, and he had better be sure he gave us paperwork to prove we purchased the cows. This confirmed my earlier feelings. I told him I was having to pay cash, and Clark suggested that he be allowed to look the animals over before money exchanged hands. Fortunately, when we got there, the cows and bull were there and in good shape, the manager had the appropriate paperwork, and we were able to get the animals loaded and leave quickly.
Driving home, Clark and I talked about the changes we would need to make in the barn area soon. He said he noticed there was an unused tool shed right behind the barn, and suggested we convert that into a shelter for the pigs, especially once Tom brought his pigs over. We would need to add more fencing, but there was plenty of pasture around the tool shed to allow the pigs to forage. This would help reduce the cost of feed somewhat. He noticed some repairs were needed in some of the unused horse stalls, and said he and the girls would work on that this afternoon. He also found a rather large room at the back of the barn that would be perfect to set up a veterinary area if that was OK. I told him to do what he thought best, as he was the expert in this area, and to just let me know what he needed.
The changes in the farm were remarkable when we got back. As we let the cows out into the pasture with the other three cows, we could see the farm was starting to look like a real working farm. This was exciting, but also a bit frightening. Janet came to find me and told me the furniture store delivered the things I bought earlier. She didn’t know where to tell them to put stuff, so it is all piled up on Chris’s porch. We still had much to do, and I kept feeling as though time was quickly running out.
Dinner that night was a crazy, casual affair. We set up a buffet table, and everyone was able to help themselves to stew and fresh bread. Janet had pitchers of iced tea and lemonade set up, too. I was very grateful for everyone’s help. Before we ate, I asked Tom to offer a blessing for our food, the hands that prepared it, and for the family and friends around the table. We had quite a crowd, including Janet and Marty, their two sons, Clark, Maureen and the three girls, Chris, Stacy, Jon, Gabby, Tom, Tim, and Jose. After we were done eating, Tom gave us a report on the day’s activities. All ten conexes were placed, and eight had been bermed. The armory conex was clad in rapidly-drying concrete. The pad for the pole barn was drying, and the pole barn had been delivered while I was getting the cows. Solar was completed in all locations. Gravel had been dropped off about a half an hour ago. The generators were installed, and the extra diesel tanks were delivered, but not yet installed. Animals had been delivered, and repairs to the horse stalls completed. We now had a new rabbit hutch set up, and the rabbits were busy right away working on increasing their numbers. The tool shed for the pigs was cleaned out, but the pigs were still in temporary housing in the barn. So far, the eight horses in the pasture seemed to be getting along, and Ranger had asserted himself as the alpha of that group. Clark had cleared out the room in the barn that was to become the animal hospital, and taken measurements to see what he had that would fit in there. He planned to return in the morning to start getting th
at set up and to make a list of what would be needed. He also said that he and his girls would string the electric fence around an area for the pigs to forage.
Chris and Jon reported that the new furniture was all set up, and they had moved the antique crib, changing table, and rocking chair we bought into Chris and Stacy’s bedroom for now. The extra mattresses were temporarily in Chris’ basement.
As we were discussing what we would be working on in the morning, Marcie and Frank drove up. Frank was still in uniform, and looked pretty upset. Surprisingly, Grace and Mandy were with them. Frank came over to me and pulled me aside.
“I have a huge favor to ask. Can Marcie, Grace, and Mandy stay here now? We had some unpleasantness in our neighborhood, and I'm not sure it is safe for them to be there alone while I’m at work.”
“Of course, Frank. What happened?” I asked. Frank explained that one of his neighbors who has been out of work for quite some time was caught trying to siphon gas from Frank’s next-door neighbor. When the homeowner challenged the thief, he pulled a gun and shot the homeowner. This was witnessed by the homeowner’s wife. The thief got away, and there is a manhunt on to find him. Frank did not want his family to get stuck in the middle of a shoot out over a gallon or two of gasoline.
Premonitions (Book 1): The Farm Page 7