Chapter 36

Carla, Jessica and Fred stood in the corn field. Fred, propped against a tractor wheel almost as tall as he was, grinned at Carla. "Look, Carla, I know I've never run a combine before, but you've already checked me out on it. The darn thing is actually easier to operate than that two-row corn picker we used to have, and I've run a cotton picker before. There's not that much difference. With Jeff's money, we don't even have to take the corn heads off to change to wheat. Hell, he bought a combine for that so you didn't have to change the setup, even though he bought extra heads, just in case. Everything is power on this thing; it even has air conditioning for crying out loud. It adjusts to the hillside, not that you have enough slope here to even notice, anyway. I..."

Carla and Jessica exchanged a glance. "I know. I know. I'm just afraid that you're going to get hurt," she sighed. "You said you hadn't worked on a farm for many years. People — a lot of people — have gotten hurt with farm equipment. Sam, Jessica and I were always doubly safe with everything. There are so many ways to get hurt. You're not likely to get a jam with this rig, but if you do, don't try to clear it yourself. Call me on the radio. Shut everything down, but don't put your hands anywhere near the jam. Even with the power shut off, you can still get hurt."

Looking up at him, she continued, "We heard of a guy who shut the equipment down, kicked a rock out that was causing the jam, and got his foot cut off. There was still enough pressure on the system to move. When he kicked the rock out, it... Well... Just don't do anything until Jessica or I get here. There aren't many rocks in the fields — never were that many, anyway. But Sam and I cleared everything we could find that would cause us trouble. But there's always the occasional something..."

Surprising Carla, Fred grabbed her and hugged her. Quickly releasing the startled woman, he chuckled and said, "I was raised on a farm. My dad preached safety almost as much as the rangemaster at the police department. Neither job killed me, and I still have all my fingers and toes. I can run this monster, and I'll call if anything happens. Now go get those folks that Dave sent out here lined up with something to do. My biggest problem is getting my fat ass up the steps into this thing," he teased. "Now get, and let my old bones get to work," he finished laughing, as he made his way up the short ladder to the cab.

Jeff and Frank stood at the crest of a little hill watching the scene in the distance as Fred started the combine, slowly moving down the field, leaving only stubble and debris behind him. The two women stood watching for a moment, then mounted their equipment and headed for the hay fields.

"You think the boss was laying out the rules?" Frank joked, as they turned toward the house.

"Probably so," Jeff answered. "Diana said that Carla was a bit uptight about Fred, since he hadn't worked on a farm in so long."

"Yeah, that's about what I thought, too. Are we going back to help Evie's crew?" Frank asked as they continued walking toward the house.

"Not unless you just want to get some more sore muscles."

Frank laughed out. "No thanks. I think I've had my share, and they're just starting to get sore. I'll probably be whining for real in the morning."

"I think we'll let the professionals do their thing by themselves. Besides, they seem to have all their equipment with them today. We would just be in the way. And... this crew is fresh. They would be laughing at us, shortly," Jeff laughed along with Frank.

As they stepped up on the back porch and Jeff reached for the door knob, they heard Diana squeal, "You what?"

When they opened the door, Diana had Margaret in a bear hug. "Oh, wonderful. Wonderful!" she cried, almost dancing with the older woman.

"You didn't?" Jeff said, grinning at Frank.

"Uh, I guess I did. Right after your wedding, actually. But she accepted this morning at breakfast," Frank proudly said.

The rest of the wives, having heard, or sensed, Jeff suspected, boiled into the kitchen. Pandemonium reigned for the next little while as all the women hugged Frank and Margaret, congratulating them.

"Where's it going to be?" Diana asked Margaret, then turned to Frank. "Please say you're going to have it at the retreat."

"Uh, well," Frank stammered, "That would be up to Margaret. I don't care where she says 'I do, ' just so she does," Frank said.

Margaret smiled tentatively at Diana, "Are you sure it would be all right. I mean, we would have to invite quite a few people. And the retreat is your home..."

Diana glanced around the room at all the smiling faces. Turning back to Margaret, she said, "We would be delighted if you would allow us to host your wedding. We certainly have enough room, and all your guests could stay over. That way they can enjoy the reception, and not have to drive afterward. After the ceremony, while you two are having fun," Diana laughed, "we can get the real lowdown on you guys from the people who really know you," she teased.

Jeff shook Frank's hand, and pounded him on the back. "Way to go," Jeff laughed. "You finally talked her into it."

Jeff finally got a chance to hug Margaret and congratulate her. The lump in his throat astonished him. He had thought that he had considered them man and wife, anyway, that this wouldn't make any difference. Apparently it had. The women surely thought so.

Later in the morning, Diana turned to Jeff. "Baby, I've checked through Carla and Jessica's food supplies. I guess that since they were moving, and didn't have much money, they have very little food in the house, other than what we brought. We've used up the major part of that, and we'll use even more of it at lunch. We need to make a quick trip to Winter Park to restock for her until she has time to buy her own."

"Hon, we gave her twenty grand for running money. Are you sure about this? Doing something like that is personal. She might not appreciate it."

Diana thought for a moment, then looked at her sister-wives. "Normally, I would say you're right, but she's going to be working from daylight until dark, then no telling what else she has to do around here. If she gets pissed at me for overstepping my bounds... She didn't get mad when we brought all that food down to feed the crews. I just don't want her having to go shopping for food when she gets in from the fields. She also has to think about feeding Fred. I'll leave her a note. If she gets mad, I'll apologize."

A couple of hours later, with the pickup laden with a massive amount of groceries, they restocked Carla's pantry and freezers.

At noon, they fed the silo crew for the last time. Carla, Jessica and Fred didn't come in for lunch, and other than unloading the combine into the trailers on a regular basis, they didn't see Fred stop at all.

Jeff, Evie and Dave sat on the back porch looking out toward the fields, where they could see Fred's combine in the distance slowly moving across one of the corn fields. Jeff looked over at Dave, "Lee says he's right on schedule. He thinks they'll be done with the third silo around two," Jeff said, as he leaned back and crossed his legs. "When do you think your foundations for the other three silos will be ready?"

"Probably Saturday noon," Dave said, taking a sip of iced tea. "We should be through pouring the last one by noon tomorrow, but I had rather they set over the weekend. We're far enough ahead of Carla now so that we don't have to hurry any more, do we?"

"Looks that way to me. They haven't even made a good dent in that first corn field, or the hay field either, for that matter, not that hay has anything to do with the silos." Motioning to the equipment in the distance, he continued, "I've noticed that Fred now has a tractor and trailer moving across the field with him, the corn feeding directly into the trailer as the two machines move along together. But even so, he's not going to fill up that first silo any time soon, not as big as those things are."

The husband and wife looked at each other. "Tell him," Evie encouraged.

Dave hesitated.

"Tell me what?" Jeff said. "What's the matter? Are you asking for a raise?" he teased.

Dave chuckled, "I never though that something like that would ever become a joke. Our lives have changed an awful lot," he said, his voice now serious, "and we appreciate all you have done for us, Jeff..."

"... And all your wives have done for us, too," Evie broke in.

Dave and Evie looked at each other. Dave turned back to Jeff and said, "Carla mentioned something, just in passing, and well... Evie and I checked it out a little this morning while you were in town buying groceries. Uh, there's an old couple that own the next farm over." He nodded vaguely toward the west side of Carla's farm.

"What in the world is the matter with you two? Is the old couple having money problems, or something?"

Dave chuckled, "No. Well, not that we know of. Actually they're trying to sell their place. Mr. Thompson said that he and his wife have gotten too old to run the farm. Their kids didn't want to have anything to do with farm life when they got grown, and moved to Denver. The Thompsons obviously love the place. It's all they've known all their lives. He inherited the farm from his father. It's just kind of sad to hear them talk about selling, but even though they're okay financially now, the taxes will eat up their savings quickly without an income from the farm. Arthritis has just about put an end to his hard-working days."

"And?" Jeff prompted, a grin beginning to show.

"Well, doggone it Boss, their farm joins Carla's place, and it's even bigger by another four hundred acres. We want you to buy it."

"And..." Jeff grinned.

"We want you to leave them the house and twenty acres of land for them to have in case they want to raise a few cattle, or something. That way, they wouldn't have to move to the city, which they hate, and Carla wouldn't need the house anyway..."

"Do it," Jeff said

"... They would have enough money... What did you say?" Dave stopped and asked when he realized that Jeff had spoken.

"Do it," Jeff quietly repeated.

Dave looked at Evie, whose sparkling eyes smiled back at him. "Told you," she said.

Jeff stood up to go into the yard. "Run it by Carla and Jessica. They'll be running it, along with you two. If she says yes, get back with me and I'll get the lawyer and accountant on the phone with you."

"Uh, Boss, I can probably talk them down some on the price..."

"Is it a fair price?"

"Oh, heck yes. They've been thinking about selling for a while, but for some reason suddenly decided that now was the time."

"Then buy it. And make sure the old couple is treated right."

"Uh, if you have time, we could ride over and talk to them, let you look around."

Jeff, halfway down the steps, stopped and turned around. "You two know by now that I know absolutely nothing about a farm or ranch. You're my project manager. If you think the place needs buying, then go buy it. I'm going out and spend some time with the silo crew before they leave."

He didn't notice Dave and Evie hug each other as he walked away.

A few minutes later, Jeff watched Lee and one of the other men testing the system that moved grain into and out of the silos. Jeff waited as Lee acknowledged him with his hand, then after talking with his worker, walked over to Jeff. "Everything is working perfectly, and the silos do look good, don't they Mr. Matthews?"

"Very impressive. Some of the tallest I've seen, except at grain elevators, of course. But I would feel better if you would drop that 'Mr.' and just call me Jeff, like we talked about yesterday."

Lee cleared his throat. "Uh, my boss is emphatic about calling the customer Mr. or Mrs. He and I get crossways enough without adding to it," he grinned.

"Please the customer?" Jeff said.

"Yeah, that's about it. We wouldn't have a company without customers."

"Then, please me by calling me Jeff."

Lee grinned at Jeff. "I could feel that one coming. I just couldn't get out of it." Chuckling, he continued, "Well, Jeff, what's on your mind today?"

"Oh, nothing. I was just thinking. Uh, my project manager just told me that he wanted to buy the next farm over. The owners have gotten too old to run it. We discussed buying most of the farmland, leaving them the house and a few acres... and well, expanding Carla's operation. I haven't even looked at the place, but if I know my project manager, that will happen soon."

Jeff propped his foot on a piece of scrap steel. "If we do buy the farm, we'll probably have to modernize it in order for Carla and Jessica to be able to handle both places. We'll also have to hire them some help, as least occasionally. So when you finish with our next three silos, you might not be through with us. Dave and I agree that what we've seen of your work is first class. You might tell your boss that we're impressed and will probably be using you again because of that good work."

Lee put out his hand. After they shook, he said, "I appreciate that Mr., uh... Jeff. And I'll pass it along to the crew, although I doubt that Mr. Jackson will put much stock in it when I tell him. Sometimes, he and I don't hit it off as well as I would like for us to. Oh, and again, we really appreciate the bonus."

"Glad we could help out a little."

As Lee turned to go back to work, he stopped and said, "I'm sure we'll see you while we're putting up the next three, if not, just give us a call when you decide about the other place. We should be just about past our rush this time of year, so there shouldn't be any big delay."

"Oh, there's no need to rush on the next three, as we discussed. We need them up, but Carla isn't frantic for them the way she was for the first three. By the time she gets around to her other crops, you should easily have the next ones in place. I understand that Mr. Thompson cut back on production this year, and already has his crops in. So, if we buy the place, we won't be in any hurry there. He may have plenty of storage space as it is, but I want to make sure the system he has for unloading into his silos is up to date. But I suspect we'll be installing a few more of these modern ones, as well."

"Good deal. Just let us know," Lee said, walking off.

A little later, Dave, Jeff and Frank had taken ATV's for a look around the farm. As they sat near a corn field watching the — now two — combines slowly moving across it, Dave spoke. "The long-range forecast calls for mostly dry weather, with only a couple of days of rain during the next two weeks. Carla should be able to get most of her crops in..."

Jeff frowned and turned to him. "What do you mean the 'most?'"

"Well, Carla tells me — and as we've just seen — that she has wheat, oats, soybeans, some barley, even a field of peas — I guess she uses them in her feed. Not to say anything about that huge crop of corn, or the hay. Even with my people helping, those two combines aren't going to get everything in, even if everything goes smoothly, and you darn sure know about Murphy."

"So we need more people and more equipment?" Jeff half asked and half stated.

"Uh, Jeff. There's a thing called diminishing returns. As you well know that machinery costs money..." His voice stumbled as he realized that Wainwright was chuckling, almost to himself. "Uh, you can't keep buying large equipment and expect to make a profit. The cost of buying more equipment will far outweigh the loss of part of the crop."

Jeff turned to look at Dave more directly. "And what about next year, and the next? And what about Thompson's farm that you're going to buy? Aren't we going to need equipment for it? I'd be surprised, to put it mildly, if his equipment is as modern as what we're looking at in that field over there. No way can Carla and Jessica handle everything by themselves, and no matter how many people you hire, if they don't have equipment to work with, they can't get the work done."

"What about this other farm?" Wainwright asked.

"How many more?" Dave sighed.

"Start with two. See if you can get them delivered today, or at least the very first thing tomorrow morning. What about people to run them?"

"The two pulling the grain trailers have run combines before. They can do it. I can get a couple of other people to drive the tractors that are pulling the trailers alongside the combines. Anybody can do that."

"What other farm?" Wainwright asked again, looking back and forth at the two other men as they continued their conversation.

"Might as well get all the attachments that go with them. Be sure to tell, what's his name, Davenport, exactly what crops Carla has and ask for any attachments she will need to gather them. Crap, I wish I knew more about farming. Get enough equipment out here to get her crops in. This woman, well both of them, have had enough trauma in their lives without watching their crops ruin that they've worked so hard to produce. They thought they had lost everything the day they started to move, then we came in and built up their hopes. She's not going to lose anything else if I can help it. We need twice as many machines in that corn field right now."

Wainwright just gave up and listened to the conversation.

After discussing the equipment for a few minutes more, Dave started his four-wheeler and headed for the house as fast as he could.

Jeff turned to Frank. "Sorry. The next farm over is for sale. Dave says it's a good deal. People keep telling me that the corporate farms put most of the little farmers and ranchers out of business. They operate the giant farms with modern equipment and everything that can be, is mechanized. We're going to do that here. If the big boys make money that way, so can Carla and Jessica. Otherwise, they'll still be struggling ten years from now.

"Besides, I thought my accountant was going to have an orgasm when I told him the corporation was buying this farm. Between my investment person, and you, I'm making money hand over fist. We won't lose any money here. It just... seems right. That old couple next door will get to keep the place they love, and I'll leave them forty acres to play with if they still want to do something — and their house. And in case you haven't noticed, that hill that runs across the front forty of Carla's property, continues past the next farm, too. We could cut a road from the back to the Thompson's house, like Carla has, and build houses across the front part of Thompson's property just like we're going to do here. That hillside will separate the expensive homes from the two farms, just like it would for Carla's place. What do you think?"