Chapter 9: The Business

Angel and Joan---Christina

Joan---Don’t you think we should tell Ana? She is going to think her child is crazy.

Angel---No. Don’t worry, I’ll take care of Ana. We should let Christina develop at her own pace. With JJ watching over and guiding her she is going to be just fine. I’ll make sure she gets a good education here in the states so she can take over running our South American division. Now let’s listen to Ana talk about the business.

Ana---After we closed on the property things really started to happen. Remember that first night when Travis had his doubts about whether we were going to be able to handle such a big project? Remember how Will took charge and gave us a plan on how it could work? That plan was put into effect almost immediately.

We needed a cow herd. Travis was put in charge of buying one. He started going to cattle auctions around the country. He was looking for young cows that Will could use for surrogate mothers. The perfect candidates were cows 3 or 4 years of age that were baron at the time but had already had at least one calf. He had bought a truck and a gooseneck trailer that could haul about 12 to 14 at a time.

How did we do this without any fences? Good question! Here’s what we did. He would drive up to the other side of the lake and open the trailer gates at a place where he had placed several salt blocks. The cows stayed close to the salt, never wandering back to where the dam is located. Remember they have about 1500 square miles to graze.

One day Travis got lucky and found a small dairy farm going out of business. He bought 500 head of Jersey cows. Some older than he wanted, others heavy with calves. What a mixed herd we started with, Brahams, Jersey and Holstein’s. But Will could not be happier! We now had 1,000 head of cows, some calves, but no bulls.

While Travis was buying up all the young cattle in the country Will had been busy. One of Joan and Travis’ brothers had shown up one day after graduating with a civil engineering degree. (Read “The Honey Trap” for more background on him). He got to work with Will laying out plans for corrals, fences and the laboratory. We brought in labor from the capital, and they stayed in the cabins across the lake while everything was being built. It was almost finished when Will and GG went to the states. Two months later they returned with over ten thousand frozen embryos.

With the help of a couple of cowboys, Will and Travis and the dogs (I’ll tell you about the dogs later) the cattle were moved into the large corrals. Then two at a time they were driven into the laboratory where Will and GG impregnated them with the frozen embryos. A GPS chip was put in each cow so we could track her on the computer. This operation is definitely high-tech.

I think the first cows were impregnated about the same time GG and I got pregnant. Why? Because those little Black Angus babies started to be born about a month after our boys were born. Will said we had 95% calf crop and that was good. Very few embryos had been aborted. Things were moving along.

Remember I said that I was looking for airplanes the day that Angel transferred the money? I had found two. Both PC-6 Porters and both were in Brazil. I flew down with my father and Debbie in the Lear.

The planes were exactly what I needed. But they had no seats. They were being used as air ambulances. Debbie said they were in good shape and all the certificates were in order. I bought them both. Debbie was looking for pilots to fly them home while father and I went to the hotel to pack. We had been arguing about me wanting to use his personal chef, Antonio, at the farm. No way! He was not giving up his chef! My mind was on the hotel business when we shut the door and were following the bellhop to the elevator.

This kid, who looked maybe 20 years old is about to get off the elevator. She sees me and in a mix of Portuguese and Spanish she says, “I need a job, maybe you can help me?” That’s what I think she said.

“We don’t have any properties here in Brazil. Sorry.”

“I’m not looking for a job in a hotel. You’re the lady who bought the Porters?”