Chapter 35

TUESDAY MORNING was humid, but the rain had stopped and the grass was dry. Dennis was at the school at a quarter till eight and was waiting when Randy pulled in with the tractor on the flatbed truck. Lana jumped out of the cab and joined Dennis as Randy backed the truck up to where they could off-load the equipment.

Dennis had seen the tractor with the mower attached, but never with the scoop on the front.

“I’d suggest you do one round of mowing first,” Randy said. “That will give you a good view of what the terrain looks like. It will take three passes with the mower to clean a swath the specified 5.5 meters wide. I’d guess there are wider places in the path that will require a fourth pass, too. Your helpers can walk behind a safe distance and check for stones and such. There are places in the three-mile trail that are dirt and not grass. That’s what the scoop is for. You can do basic grading with it.”

“Thank you for doing this for the school,” Dennis said. “And for loaning me out to them as well.”

“It’s a good deal,” Randy said. “But I need to get moving. I need to go out and check the fields for damage from the storm Sunday and yesterday. Lana, let me know the fuel situation when you come home this evening.” He mounted up in the cab and drove off without another word. Dennis looked at Lana.

“I thought he wasn’t going to let you stay unless the others were here,” he said. Lana came straight to him for a hug.

“They’ll be here. We passed Brenda on her way out to pick up Tori and Debbie. The Armors were at the grocery store getting supplies with Leanne and Rosie. I’m guessing the Longs are on their way, too.”

“Well, I don’t think I should hang around waiting for them. I’d better get started on the mowing. Maybe you can pass on the instructions for picking rocks when the others get here.”

“I don’t want to wait by myself. I’ll ride along with you. They know what to do.” They climbed up on the tractor and Dennis started it as Lana settled herself on the fender to watch the terrain and check the mowing path behind.

Of course, the tractor was too loud for all but rudimentary conversation that amounted to pointing out features along the trail. Even with the sections that were dirt, it took half an hour to mow a single swath around the course. When they reached the track again, where they started, Natalie, Brenda, Amy, and Judith were waiting for them. Dennis shut down and they jumped off to greet their girlfriends.

“Aw, Mr. and Mrs. Farmer,” Natalie said, looking at their bib overalls and straw hats. Lana kissed her on the cheek and pulled her hat off to pull over Nat’s hair.

“Now you look like the missus. You can ride the trail on the next pass while the rest of us walk to investigate.”

“The others are already following the trail,” Natalie said, returning Lana’s hat and putting her own on. “Tori assessed the path and said you’d be coming around to make a second pass. She and the others are walking the trail to pick up rocks and such.”

“We’re going to need shovels and rakes when we walk the dirt sections. I can do some smoothing with the front-end loader, but it’s going to take more than that. For now, I’ll get rolling and start the next swath. This is going to take a while.”

Dennis climbed into the seat on the tractor and Natalie mounted the fender in the position Lana had been riding. They started putt-putting along as the girls fell in behind them to police the trail. They caught up to the first team of rock pickers when they reached the dirt portion of the trail. Natalie got off the fender and swapped with Tori. Dennis had them all stand well back as he drove past to the next grass section of the trail.

Tori’s trip was almost all the way around the track before they caught up with the trailing group again on the third pass. She dismounted and Brenda joined Dennis for the ride up to the next group. There, she swapped out with Leanne and they continued back to the school. There, they found Randy waiting for them with the truck. He was unloading the hay rake.

“Lana called me and said she thought you needed to rake the path. Otherwise, the cut grass will lay on top of the fresh and kill the new growth. You won’t need to ted it, but we can come through with the trailer and pitchforks to clear it. We can take it out to grind up for mulch on the garden.”

“Sounds good, sir. We’ve got another full pass of mowing to do yet and then once around to pick up the wide places in the trail. I’ll probably rake it this afternoon,” Dennis said.

“I think we need to get some riding mowers out here after the long grass is cleared,” Tori said. “The grass is still too long to meet the cross country standard. It says an inch and a half or less. I’m pretty sure we’re closer to three inches after the hay mower goes through.”

“I agree,” Dennis said. “But we need to take care of all the holes and high spots before we bring lawn mowers out.” He told Randy about the need for rakes and shovels as well and Randy put it on a list to bring out at lunch time. Dennis and Tori got back on the tractor and headed out on the next pass.

When Dennis and Tori caught up with the nearest group of rock pickers, Tori jumped off and Brenda got on the tractor. The other girls stepped back a safe distance as Dennis started up the mower again and pulled out. It wasn’t long before they caught up with the next group, pausing for a drink at the dirt portion of the path that went into the woods. Brenda dismounted.

“That doesn’t seem fair,” Dennis said. “You only got to ride for ten minutes.”

“I’m okay with that. Too bumpy on my bony tush,” Brenda laughed.

“Us next!” Roberta yelled. She and Daniella got on opposite sides of the tractor.

“Our tushes are better padded than Brenda’s,” Daniella laughed. Dennis started the tractor again and when they came out of the woods, he lowered the mower and started cutting the last swath around the trail. In twenty minutes, they were back at the start and Dennis shut down.

“Well, there are three of us. We can start the third pass around the trail picking rocks.” The girls groaned at the thought, but happily accepted kisses as incentive to keep working. They thought they were working along as fast as the other groups were, even though they were the smallest group scouting the trail. They’d reached the dirt path when Dennis’s phone buzzed.

“Hey, sweetie. What’s up?” he asked.

“Turn around and come back to the start,” Lana said. “When we came out of the woods, we met up with the rest of the girls and stretched across the whole width. You shouldn’t need to work the last section, which wasn’t as bad as the first section anyway. Besides, we’re hungry.”

“Okay. I guess it’s closer to backtrack than to continue on. We’ll be there in a few minutes.”

“Coach is here with pizzas and soft drinks. Hurry!”

Dennis turned to Roberta and Daniella.

“They say they finished the last segment, so we should go back for lunch,” he said.

“Okay. But first, I want some sincere kisses. I’m feeling deprived,” Daniella said.

Dennis wasn’t hard to convince when it came to kissing the twins and they spent a few minutes doing it before they headed back to the trailhead.

“So how does the course look?” Ardith asked the teens as they all camped out on the ground to grab pizza.

“It’s really a beautiful trail,” Debbie said. “We’re definitely going to have fun running it.”

“All the grass needs to be cut shorter, but we’ll wait until we’ve got the holes filled and the cut grass taken out,” Tori said. “A hay mower doesn’t really cut close enough for a cross country course.”

“There are a lot of holes to fill, though. We moved some pretty big rocks out of the way, and the gophers have really been at it,” Judith said.

“Plus there’s a lot of work to be done in the woods on the dirt path. It’s really uneven,” Lana said. “Dad is bringing rakes and shovels, but that might not be enough. We’ll have to get some fill from somewhere or there will be exposed roots tripping people all over the place.”

“And there’s that section that runs along the old fencerow of Mr. Abernathy’s farm. Technically, it’s all grass, but it’s got two deep wagon ruts along most of it and a slight rise where the fence used to be,” Dennis said. “I think we should pretty much grade it and reseed if we can.”

“I’m just so glad you were all willing to come out here and pitch in. Believe me, none of the coaches are expecting you to sacrifice the rest of your summer time to work out here,” Ardith said.

“It’s kind of fun when we’re all able to do something together,” Brenda said. “And I think some of the other athletes will join us when we put the word out. A couple of us are going to get text and email out to as many as we can.”

“Well, that spoils my plans,” Amy said. “I don’t want to run naked through the woods if there are going to be people who aren’t girlfriends around. And our boyfriend.”

“Please be cautious about anything like that,” Ardith sighed. “We really don’t need rumors of naked orgies on the cross country trail.”

“Ooh! I hadn’t been thinking of an orgy. Good idea, Coach!” Amy jumped back in.