Chapter 8

We enjoyed a pleasant trip home. I love no surprises.

The calves began to drop, and I was hoping it wouldn't be too long until the Holsteins calved. I was ready for some fresh milk, canned and powdered got old in a hurry.

I got our early garden put in and went and helped the other families get their gardens in. Everyone had their daily jobs to do and pitched in and worked without any trouble.

Earnest, Ernie and Luke went to the next town over and brought back a dump truck load of fertilizer and garden supplies. We all planted a good-sized plot of corn. Deuce and George rigged up an irrigation system that would use the water from the ponds on our ranches to water the garden and corn patch. Giselle asked if we could grow some wheat next year. I didn't see why not so we planned to put it in the next fall.

The hens were all "setting" and we hoped that there would be many biddies around by the end of the year. I was surprised, but nearly every grocery store had some chicken feed in stock. So we were in good shape for feed quickly.

Of course there was plenty of dog feed. Cass brought a small litter of puppies that month. She was a good mother and those two puppies grew like weeds and were spoiled rotten by the women and children.

Our milk cows finally calved and freshened. They ate a lot of feed, but they were big and gave two gallons of milk each per day, even allowing the calves to nurse some.

That made for enough milk for everyone to have what they needed, and make some really good cottage cheese and regular cheese. Ann and Giselle knew about making dairy products at home, but they had used goat milk, mostly. The Holsteins didn't have fat milk, but it was enough for our use. I loved the fresh butter on biscuits in the morning.

One day in May, Amy came to me and told me that she thought she was pregnant. I held her close and told her that I was very glad and I loved her very much. This event caused Elaine to be a bit down in the dumps about not getting pregnant, but she told me that she had been on birth control for six years prior to the plague, and it could take as much as two years for her body to get straightened out.

I asked, "Does that mean that you don't want to make love with me for a while?"

She looked at me and saw me smiling. She smiled and said, "I think you should make love with me every day, until I get pregnant, too."

Carla, who was around seven months along, said, "You can forget that foolishness, I am not missing my turn except in the direct emergency."

They both laughed and hugged me.

Our summer went along swimmingly. Our garden and corn patch produced well. We had enough rain that we didn't have to irrigate except two days in July. We stored the dried corn in the grain bin at the barn.

Amy had morning sickness for a while in June, but was quickly over it.

Carla was off sex for the month of July, but Sandra, Amy and Elaine just filled her turns with a smile and we all loved her up otherwise.