Chapter 4

The next morning Michele left with Doug after breakfast and I helped the girls with dishes before we headed up the hill to the new house. Sara could not believe the size of the house nor that we were doing all the cabinets ourselves. I teased Sara by saying "I doubt that you will have time to help us with all the cooking and laundry, not to mention the five acre tuck garden you want!"

Sara got a really strange look on her face and Bobbie burst out laughing, telling her, "He is only teasing you. We all share chores and we do a little laundry every night!" I pulled her to me, then mumbled an apology for upsetting her while I gave her a quick hug and a kiss on the cheek. I guess this was too much for Sara, because tears appeared in her eyes and she clung to me for a little bit while Bobbie stood next to me with a smile on her face.

Just as we were getting ready to put together the frames for the kitchen cabinets, the tub enclosure and other items we ordered for the bathroom arrived with the crew to be installed. We watched the crews unload the equipment and when they had the hot tub set where I wanted I made the connections to the drain and water pipe. Then we started to fill the tub. By the time it was half full I had made the electrical connections and turned on the heater. The foreman told me that he would have done that for me but I told him it kept the girls busy and out of his hair.

We returned to the house for lunch. Doug and Michelle had the tractors there with the disc for plowing the garden up on one. The front-end loader was there also, with a wagon full of old manure and straw behind it. Lunch was spent with Michelle and Sara sharing what they had seen and done during the morning. Doug was happy to hear about the hot tub and said he hoped it would be ready by this evening. I assured him that it was going to be, but besides him and me no else had a bathing suit, which caused a general moan of disappointment.

Doug said, "When we were kids, we just skinny dipped in the river!"

"Not hardly, we are not kids any more!" stated Sara.

"Sara's right, they are either old married women or old maids now!" I quipped.

Bobbie slapped me on the arm but Michelle rose to the occasion and issued a challenge, "If you can skinny dip so can we!"

After lunch, Sara with Doug's guidance marked off the size of the garden she wanted and he made the first pass with the tractor, cutting the ground and turning the soil. We spent the next several minutes removing the rocks that were turned up, stacking them off to one side.

Once the rocks had been removed Doug used the screw jack to raise the bed of the trailer then I pushed the center gate up just as he started to drive around the plot. When the manure stopped flowing, Sara climbed up into the trailer with a shovel. She pushed the rest down as Doug drove around. By the time that was done Sara had sat down a couple times by accident and was pretty dirty, but happy as a clam.

After some discussion Doug and I detached the wagon and went to attach the post hole digger to the back of the tractor. While we were gone Michelle ran the disc across the plot mixing in the manure and breaking up the soil some more. By the time we got back they were just starting to pick up rocks again.

Doug asked them to throw the rocks into the wagon. Sara wanted to know if they would have to do this every time they plowed. Doug said for the first several times they would, but after a while it would not be as many. Doug used the front-end loader to pick up the rocks that had already been stacked and put them into the wagon.

Doug then climbed onto the other tractor and raised the discs but lowered the front blade at an angle and plowed a small ditch on all four sides of the garden six-foot back from the plot. When that was done he switched tractors and every where he stopped along that ditch I used the post hole digger to make a hole. The holes were from 4 to 6 feet apart with one in each corner.

When that was done I took the tractor with the discs and Doug drove the other tractor back to the shed. We removed the post hole digger, then put old drill pipe we were using for fence posts and a small gate in the bucket of the front-end loader and headed back for the house. Once there, the gate was dropped at the end nearest the house and the women started to take the fence posts and stick one in each hole as Doug drove around.

Shortly we had all the posts set and tomorrow we could get the fence material; but for now we were tired but happy. Doug announced "Bob and I are taking the tractor and wagon back but it will take us about a half hour because we were going to dump the rock on the way. I suggest that you get a clean set of panties and a tee-shirt so you all can be ready to go skinny dipping when we get back!" I know there were howls of protest but between the noise of the tractor and Doug's laughter I could not hear them.

We dumped the rock in a small-eroded gully that had started to form along the edge of the road then took the tractor to the shed. On the way back Doug said, "I do plan to take them skinny dipping but I was thinking of doing it at the river. Just play along with me, it will be fun."

I agreed and when we reached the house the girls looked grim but had the required clothing. Doug and I went in and retrieved our swimming suits and T-shirts and climbed into the truck. Instead of heading up the hill we turned down and headed for the river. Bobbie was the first to speak asking, "Where are we going?"

"To go skinny dipping in the river!" replied Doug.

Sara burst out, "I thought we were going to the hot tub!"

"I wouldn't let you in the hot tub as dirty as we all are right now!" I replied.

"Girls, we have been setup" said Michelle with a slight smile.

Once we reached the river Doug pulled the truck up to the edge of the bank. We checked to make sure everyone could swim then Doug said, "The guys will undress on this side and you girls on the other side of the truck. The last one in is a rotten egg!"

There was then a mad scramble to our respective sides of the truck. Michelle was the first one to hit the water and said in a loud voice, "Yuck! There is slime all over the bottom!"

This allowed Doug and I to get in next and when we surfaced in the center of the river I shouted, "The muck is only against the bank where it settled. If you swim out towards the center it will be a combination of sand and rock."

The Bobbie and Sara made a mad dash for the water and we called it a tie. At first the girls were very self-conscious and made sure their upper bodies were below the surface of the water. Shortly Michelle noticed that every time she would expose herself to Doug he would turn red, and there was a hurried discussion between the girls. Shortly after that they started to torment Doug by taking turns popping up and displaying their charms for an instant. Doug started taking revenge by splashing and dunking them. This continued for a while, then Michelle walked straight up to him and asked him "Why have you not dunked Bobbie?"

Doug stammered around then said, "She is Bob's and she is pregnant!" as if that was a suitable answer. For my part I noticed that Bobbie had not done half the teasing the other girls did, and she stayed near me.

This did not suit Michelle and she reached out grabbing the only handle available. She gave it a good tug and told him "You are a male chauvinist pig!" then darted away leaving a sputtering Doug in her wake.

Doug finally unfroze and took out after Michelle. When he swam by Sara she calmly pushed him under the water and took off towards me. Meanwhile Michelle had changed course and was headed for Bobbie. Sure enough as Doug passed Bobbie she took the opportunity to dunk him, too. As Doug got to his feet he said, "What do you find so damm funny?" as I stood there laughing.