Chapter 17

The kids left at 7:30 for the Jackson house. I cleaned up and checked the bedrooms again, made the boys beds and collected the used condoms from trash cans. If Linda had not checked out the bedrooms by now, I doubted she was going to - but I still needed to cover all the bases.

At 8 I had the Pete idling to warming up so I could take the last load of wheat from the field to the mill. I was just getting ready to climb into the cab when the Jackson Gator drove in with Linda by herself.

“The kids said you were going to carry in the last load of wheat this morning. I was hoping I could ride along,” she said.

I figured she wanted to talk without ears close by. It was no problem. I noticed she was dressed in shorts and a midriff baring shirt that showed she had not seen the sun anytime lately.

“Sure, you are welcome to ride along any time,” I said.

I waited until she had the seat belt on and then explained how to adjust the air seat for her weight and ride. Not enough air and the seat would bottom out with a spine jarring stop and with too much air she would have no cushion at all.

We talked about lots of things as we rode along. I made it a leisurely ride; there was no hurry today. The conversation changed over to her relationship with husband Robert.

There had been troubles since Robert lost his job. Surviving the year had been tough on their relationship as well as the family finances and it still had not fully mended. I wondered why I was being confided in with that information. She was more than twice my age with totally different life experiences. Maybe she just needed to talk.

I learned she was two years older than Dad. She had intended to come back to the farm after college and find a local job. Then she met Robert and fell in love. Robert hated the boondocks rural way of life so city life it was. She felt she had sacrificed too much of her dreams to be with Robert and the city life.

At first she enjoyed the fast pace living but the problems seemed to mount every year. First it was finding a suitable house in a good location they could afford. Then along came the job loss and then the problems with Carol and now they were getting worse.

I had the feeling that if they had known about Amos’s health problems several months ago, along with Carol’s problem there would have been a very different construction project at the farm.

When we returned to the yard, the pigs were being unloaded into the pen. They were squealing and running around like a bunch of drunkards. It was a good thing that Dad and James had lined the interior of the fence post with lumber; they would have run through the wire.

Either they were upset with their new pens, the loss of their mother, or were just upset with the new surroundings.

Amos and the grandkids were there watching the commotion. Dad had called Amos when the truck arrived. Amos wanted to see the pigs.

The water trough was filled with water from the hose and would need to done several times a day. A few found the feed trough and stopped to eat, causing others to become interested and stop running.

Then the real fights began. The pigs were apparently from different brood sows. A new pecking order had to be established. It was the same with all herd animal. Cows, buffalo, elk, deer, sheep and goats - all determined a leader, usually a male that fought to be the stud of the herd and choose his harem.

All the males had been castrated so there was no fighting for a harem. Castrated males grew bigger, faster, and were usually less aggressive in the pen.

In our case with pigs it was to determine who was going to eat from the trough first. As it filled up, those low on the pecking order were violently pushed away to be last to eat or drink what was left in the trough. With limited food, those low on the pecking order would be slow to gain weight and in some cases became runts to be destroyed. There was also a possibility to pen them separately and give them more protein and vitamins for a boost.

Full feed troughs eliminated that problem in our case. When the first had their fill and went to rest there was always plenty left for the rest of the brood.

The pecking order would take several days to work out and be contested from time to time as was normally the case in the animal world.

Farmers Supply delivered the Leghorn chicks while we were watching the pigs. There were two things wrong with that from the beginning. Elsie and Carol fell in love with the chicks as soon as they were put in the brooder pen. They each had several - holding them, cuddling them and petting their soft fuzz that would eventually be replaced by feathers.

The brooder pen was a wire pen to keep them confined under a medium heat lamp and near the water supply and little feeders. They came with a special feed that we needed to use for the first month.

Little chicks had a very limited mobility for the first few days and could easily wander a few feet from food, water and heat. They would soon die with no mother hen to keep them together, warm and safe.

The second thing was Dad had ordered two hundred; he must have done it without thinking. If half were hens - a good average - and they laid one egg each a day, that was eight dozen eggs a day. What the heck were we going to do with them? A single dozen eggs lasted a week in the kitchen.

“Grandma, when they start laying eggs I hope you want plenty of them,” I said.

“You know the farmers market in town used to have fresh eggs but quit because no one had chickens that laid eggs in the area any more. You might be able to sell some there,” Grandma said.

“You do know that for every day they are not refrigerated, they lose a week of shelf life,” Grandma said.

“I will have to remember that,” I replied.

“You know you we could always teach Elsie and Carol to bake cakes and cookies to sell at that market with that nice kitchen you have. That could use up a couple dozen a day,” Grandma said.

“I thought something was different about the stove you have as big as it is. I realized last night that it is a commercial stove. You could cook six cakes and pans of cookies at the same time,” she said.

“I want to be here when you teach them. I want pictures of them in aprons and covered in flour dust,” Linda said - that brought a laugh from us.

Grandma didn’t know it but in the back of the pantry there was a commercial mixer and several other commercial appliances that I put there five years ago because I didn’t think I would ever need them. I wanted the open counter space and it gave me less to keep clean. I wondered what Mom used them for?

I was too small to be paying much attention to what happened in the kitchen, along with the long hours at school and homework.

I wondered if Mom did baking and sold it at the farmers market for spending money. That may explain why we had chickens once upon a time and why they left when Mom passed.

Cookies and cakes weren’t that hard to bake. I had done them for the holidays the last couple of years. All I did was to follow directions on the mix packages.

“May I use your internet to zoom with my work? They have some questions I need to solve,” Linda said.

“Sure,” I answered.

Linda sent Carol to the Jackson house to get her laptop and brief case. I still did not know for sure what Linda did for a living. I would ask the girls tonight; I was curious.

When Carol came back I showed Linda how to get on our system and the router password. I closed the office door and started on supper. Tonight I was going to make a meatloaf with all the fixings; it would be something different.

Carol was still here so I put her in an apron and used the recipe card from the recipe box that had been Mom’s and - I suspect by some of the writing - my grandma’s. With Carol helping using the card we made two nice pan-sized meat loaves. On one I made the tangy topping and on the other I covered with a layer of bacon.

With the oven pre-heated they both went into the oven at the same time and would be done at the same time.

It was close to lunch time so I sent Carol to find the group to ask which of the options they wanted; grilled ham and cheese, steak sandwich, or cold cut subs. I had the ingredients to make all of them.

I made two steak sandwiches, four grilled ham and cheese and two cold cut subs. I sent Carol into the office with a note asking Linda what she wanted for lunch and how soon she wanted it. All the crew was sitting at the table eating.

“Nearly done, but wait until I finish - grilled ham and cheese,” Linda’s note said.

All of us were finished and the men had gone back to work while Grandma stayed with me and the girls. The meat loaves were cooling on a stand when Linda came out of the office.

“Wow, I didn’t expect to be that long. Wow that smells good. Meatloaf - haven’t had that in a while,” she said.

“You are right- big files didn’t bother your system at all; they went through quickly. I tried to use the hot spot I have and that was a joke yesterday,” she said.

“You have to get close to town to get reasonable cell reception for that,” I said as I made her lunch.

I asked Grandma Jackson if she wanted one or half of each of the meat loaves to take home with her.

Meat loaf is like a universal all around item. You can eat it as a meal with all the fixings and vegetables or you can have it as hot or cold sandwiches and add baked beans or other sides. It will keep for three days in the refrigerator wrapped in aluminum foil or plastic.

“Can I take half of each? That would solve that old question of what’s for supper and what’s for lunch tomorrow,” she said.

The Jackson’s went home to clean after the carpenters and do things at the house. The girls and Bob would come back later.

The field work had slacked down now for us. There would be spraying to do on the beans and corn. The biggest thing to do now was tend to the animals. The pasture fences needed cutting and the animals fed daily with good feed and fresh water.

I checked the garden. I could start tomorrow making pickles for a few days. I had done it last year because it made me angry to see so many cucumbers go bad on the vine after working so hard to keep the weeds and grass out of the garden.

Not only did I do pickles but I froze string beans, lima beans and canned both for a comparison. I froze and canned sweet corn and canned beets.

Dad and James both helped in the garden with planting, weeding and harvesting, but the rest was up to me.