Chapter 43

Thinking about it... ‘was this a mistake?’ A bit more rumination and, ‘You should go look.’

“Daddy?”

“Yes?”

“I bought some more land,” I said.

“And?”

“Wanna go look?”

There was the sound of papers laid on a desk ... suddenly ... like a slap. Then the scrape of a rollerchair with rollers jammed with my long hair. A heavy sigh and footsteps.

“You haven’t seen it? Selene!”

“It was cheap.” Even I could hear the cringe.

“How much?”

“Fifty an acre.”

“In the Arizona desert?”

“Next door.”

“Hornsbys place?”

“Yes.”

“Really? ... how far?”

“East to 973.”

“South?”

“To the first Dirt and Loam...”

“I heard that but...”

“I got it too ... but they have a lease.”

“All three ponds?”

“There are three?”

“Yeah ... let’s go look.” He suggested jeans, hightop leather boots, gloves and a snakebite kit.

We changed.

“Call Bud. Ask if we can borrow the track.”

Bud had purchased a German Leopard from Canada.

Ooo ... I can see that requires some explanation.

Great Britain had a huge testing ground in Saskatchewan ... until the Canadians threw them out. It was a case of go home ... now! When they left ... they left everything ... and a few of the things they left were Leopards ... the tank.

About a hundred of them.

Ooo ... that’s not a few ... that’s a bunch. The Canadians had a big scrap metal sale. De-militarized Sten submachine guns ... thousands of ‘em ... military vehicles ... bunch a Land Rovers and stuff ... the Leopards were in the ‘stuff’.

Rather than emulating the Americans by cutting the barrel off the cannon ... the Canadians kept the turrets. Which was peachy keen by Bud ... he wanted the track part. The Leopards were road worthy ... rubber covered tracks. He took the bus up ... drove the tank home. It had been sitting in his shop ever since.

“Sure ... I’ll have it full of fuel ... you fill it up when you bring it back.”

“Okay.”

“You do know how it works.”

Daddy said he’d read about ‘em on line.

Bud grinned.

“Hey ... at least I don’t have to wind it up.”

Early German and some Soviet tanks are hand crank start ... sort of. There’s a really heavy flywheel that has an enormous inertia. The flywheel has to be spinning before the engine will start. Two guys on the hand crank cranking like mad. Well ... it is possible to push start one ... but that takes a bunch of big guys ... rugby big.

Leopards have electric start.

The shed with the track also had the snow blade, and a couple of other impliments I have no idea about. I think one is a ‘tie breaker,’ for cutting railroad ties. But Bud didn’t say and Daddy didn’t know

I won’t say that it was ‘instant start’ but it did start. Daddy spent half a tank of fuel just getting the track moving.

South to the pumphouse foundation ... head east just south of the cemetary between the cemetary fence and the first pond. North at the corner, east to the small pond.

Daddy stopped at the pond.

“According to the records ... there was a spring here.”

“What records?”

“County Courthouse.”

“What?”

“I was checking up on a masters candidate ... veracity not being a favorite word of hers.”

“Oh.”

“Digging ... Prospecting for gravel ruined the spring volume. It was almost artesian ... free flowing ... now it’s a trickle. But it IS cold ... we could put the house here.

“While we’re here I want to check the creek.”

He turned to the north ... stopped at the fence.

“You bought this?”

“Yessir.”

“Great! I always wanted to do this.”

He slapped it in gear and flattened the fence ... drove right over it at the corner.

The grin was worth every penny I paid.