Chapter 10

The week started fast as I had some big plans for what I wanted to accomplish. The garden ground was busted up and smoothed, ready for planting. With six of us working to plant the five acres, we moved along fast. Since tonight was the full moon nearest St. Patrick's Day, we cut up all of the potatoes to be planted.

The tractor could prepare the ground, even make a trench to plant potatoes and vegetables, but you still had to plant potatoes and seeds by hand. The six of us were able to finish the potatoes that first day. When I drove Pedro and Jesus home that evening, Pedro told me, "We have a truck now. If you don't mind, can you still pick us up? The others have to go to George's every day and that is a long walk."

"No problem, Pedro. You and Jesus have been good workers for me."

That evening Mildred asked, "Is our garden going to be too big? The garden is bigger than the meadow by our old place."

"Mildred, five acres is about six hundred sixty feet long by three hundred thirty feet wide. The way we are planting, we will have about a hundred sixty rows, four feet apart, and about three hundred and thirty feet long. The first five rows are rhubarb and asparagus, next are sweet potatoes, then regular potatoes, followed by sweet onions. We'll plant all of the pumpkins and melons before using up our vegetable seed. We'll plant sweet corn in any rows left. I plan on using up all of the seed I got from the man we got the cows from, so I'll plant one of my other fields in sweet corn and one in oats. I'll still have my big field in hay, and I think I'll plant Ben's acreage in hay. He says we can use his land as he's not working it any longer."

Summer held her arms out wide, "We'll be able to feed the whole county. Momma and I won't have to can much if we trade all of our vegetables."

It took two more days to finish the garden, and two more to finish up the vineyards and orchards. I was proud to have renewed those old vineyards, knowing that they would produce abundantly in a couple of years.

Saturday's market was busy this week, as we had a huge quantity of butter, buttermilk, and cream. I left the ladies with the pickup and walked over to the area where people had equipment to sell.

There was a hydraulic log splitter for sale with a sign, "Needs Major Repairs". I could really use one of these to bust up all of my wood to cure. I looked at the splitter for at least twenty minutes before a guy with bibbed overalls came up to me. "Think you can fix it? A couple of men said it would cost more to fix it than it's worth. I suppose I can sell it for scrap iron, but it just seems as if someone should be able to fix it."

"What is happening when you try to use it?"

The man pointed to the dual hydraulic pistons and said, "When it's splitting the wood, fluid squirts down the side of the tube. Those are sealed units and no one thinks you can get to the seals to replace them."

The guy could see my interest and asked, "What will you give me for it?"

I looked him in the eye. "Not much, considering you're going to sell it for scrap. What's the minimum you'll take?"

The man shuffled his feet digging a path in the gravel. "It's got to be worth twenty-five bucks. I have all of the books for it and a five gallon can of hydraulic fluid. That's twenty-five bucks worth."

I stuck my hand out and said, "It's a deal. Have you greased the wheel bearings recently, or do I need to load it into the back of my truck?"

"Tires and bearings are good. It'll follow you home just fine. Let me know if you ever fix the thing."

Sure hope I can fix the piece of equipment; something like this would save me days and days getting ready for the winter.

We were done early and went home. There was no desire to go to Pine Ridge, so we were home kicking back. Bradley Conner came up to the house about six and asked if he could take Summer to the theater in town. He apologized for the last minute plan, but said he didn't know what his dad might have had for him do.

It didn't take Summer but five minutes to get ready, then the two were driving down the lane. Mildred told me, "My little girl is growing up. The way those two look at each other, I'll bet they get together permanently one of these days."

I pulled the Ford tractor out of the machine shed and parked it in the cave with the other equipment. I pushed the splitter into the machine shed and began taking it apart. I could see seams where parts fit together, so I figured there had to be a pin or key holding it together. I couldn't find it so I cleaned up and went inside with the manual.

It took me all of three pages to find where the pin was that held everything together. It was difficult to see, as it was under the knuckle of the push shaft. Just to make sure, I took my flashlight out to find the pin for myself. It was right where it was supposed to be. I figured a couple of nights working on the splitter and I would have one of the two Latino guys splitting and stacking. We were going to have to hunt up some downed hickory trees to hold us through the year. We could use the dead apple trees, but hickory tasted and smelled better.

We went over to George's on Monday morning to straighten out his other washed out field. We repeated the process we used before, and with the help of explosives, we blew the stumps out and used them to fill in the washes. There wasn't a bluff to use to border the creek on the opposite side this time. There were a lot of trees on that side that required a lot more cutting than I anticipated. The second morning, we brought my wagon and loaded it up with pieces of hickory and black walnut logs. I was going to have to shop these logs to find out what they were worth. It took all three of us to load the longer logs suitable for use in cabinetmaking. I knew there were still some furniture makers in North Carolina, not all that far away, who would love to have all this black walnut. I hoped I could get some of them to come bid and take the logs away. Once again, George had his men bring a wagon down and haul all of the oak up to his place.

At the end of the second day, the creek was straight and we had built a sea wall, or a creek wall in this case, and flow dams so water wouldn't wash out the banks again. If anything, it would wash out in the other direction. George was happy, I was happy, and Pedro and Jesus were happy. I told them that I would pick them up at seven the next morning, so they could sleep in a half hour longer. My thought was to walk through the fields to see what had to be done to plant the oat seed we had. I figured it was all pretty well drained, plowed, disked twice, so broadcast sowing would be easy, and then a light disking should do the job. I was pleased that the seed was for hull-less oats, so I wouldn't have to worry about milling them to make them edible. I also wanted to go through the vineyards and orchards one more time to make sure they all were taken care of, especially the old vineyards on the other side of the mountain.

That night was the second one that I worked on the splitter. The seals on one side had dried out and rolled, opening up some gaps for fluid to squirt out. I measured the sizes of all of the seals on the machine, checking the sizes against the manual for the right seal material and nomenclature, and promised myself a quick trip to town in the morning.

I was cleaned up and thinking of going to bed early when my phone rang. It was Mervin. "Hey, Mike, I told you I wouldn't bug you, but the cable company has everything installed and is ready for me to take it out to the distribution points. I have the map you asked for. When can we get together to go over the work?"

"Tell you what, Mervin, I'll be in town in the morning and can meet you at the Kitchen around nine, if that's good for you?"

"That's good, Mike; I'll see you at nine at the Kitchen."

I told the ladies what I had planned, and they wanted to get a bunch of butter, cream, and eggs together for the Kitchen. Our commodities were always welcome.

The next morning, I set the two Latino men up to be busy until noon and possibly longer. I figured I should be back by then. Mildred and Summer rode into town with me and accompanied me into the Tractor Supply store. The parts guy didn't blink at the seal sizes and part numbers and began assembling the order for me. To save on my cash, I paid with my debit card this time.

The seals had cost forty-two bucks, so the total dollar outlay for the splitter was going to be sixty-seven dollars for something that would sell used for well over a thousand dollars.

At the Kitchen, I sat with Mervin as he showed me his maps. He also had copies of the landowners' agreements to allow him to run his feeds. The way it looked, one direction was going to be tough and one easy. I told Mervin I would begin walking the two paths in the morning. I thought the man was going to hug me. I advised Mervin, "Let me walk the two paths first to see what it is going to take to clear it. Why don't you come along so you can see what I will have to do? If you have any of your cable company engineers around, they may want to walk it with me."

Mervin didn't want to take the time from his other work, but said he could have a cable company man go with me. He told me, "Whatever you do, get me that bid right away so they can approve it and I can get started."

The next morning, I set up Pedro and Jesus for the day and took off to meet the cable company engineer at the Kitchen. He was smart and was wearing heavy boots and clothes that would handle brush.

Using my handheld GPS, I logged numbers on the straight through path until we came to a ravine that was over fifty foot deep and a hundred foot across. I marked the locations and spray painted a marker tree before we made our way back to my truck and the base unit where the distributions were going to originate. It was lunch time, so we ate at the Kitchen before going back out. We drove around as near as possible to where the ravine was and climbed back up the hill. Using the GPS and a compass, we followed the path all the way to where the small building was going to be built that would house the equipment to distribute cable out to customers.

As we walked back to the truck, I asked Gene, the cable company engineer, "Are you going to have trouble spanning that ravine, or do we need to look for a way around?"

Gene was quick; "Our crews should be able to do that one all right, but it's going to take twice the men for that span. Too bad these old county maps don't show ravines like this."

I suggested, "I'll print out a satellite photo of the path tonight that we can look at tomorrow. I think that run is going to be really tough."

Before making my way home, we agreed to meet at the same time, and I went by the library and looked up the coordinates and let Google Earth find a reasonable satellite photo of the areas we were going to be clearing. I printed out a couple of dozen pages to use as a guide.

At home the men had accomplished everything I wanted from them and had begun putting stakes up to hold cord wood. Pedro said, "If you keep us, we will keep splitting wood to be busy and fill these up to dry. You have a mound of chunk that is almost higher than your machine shed."

The work needed to be done, so they would earn their keep if I let them continue. I hoped to finish the splitter tonight and if I did, they could use that tomorrow and make a big dent in the stack of blocks.

Knowing that we were going to be super busy, I rebuilt the splitter after supper. Once done, I hooked it up to the John Deere and split several of the two and half foot lengths for the fireplace. I could see how someone could wear out something like this. Once satisfied it could do the job, I put it and the John Deere away and planned tomorrow for my two Latino workers.

After picking up the men the next morning, I spent half an hour showing them how to use the splitter and cautioning them as to how dangerous it can be. I even was able to find a couple pairs of clear goggles for them to wear. When I was comfortable with their ability to use the equipment, I drove to the Kitchen to begin my second day with the engineer.

A mile from the origination point, we came to a bluff that was at least a hundred feet straight up. Gene said, "This will be a problem, since the top is going to be solid rock and we won't easily be able to plant a pole. Does your satellite photo show a way around?"

We took a few minutes to plot a new direction around the bluff, and ended up using a path just off the roadway to go up the small mountain we had to go over. Once over the top, it was a straight shot to where the new building was going to be. There was a small river and several creeks, but other than having to go around to the other side, this was something I could do. As we drove back to town, I called Mervin to meet us at the Kitchen so we could go over what we saw so I could make a bid.

As soon as Mervin came in and sat to have some coffee with us, he was asking for my bid. I think Gene, the engineer, thought Mervin was a little pushy, but he was used to distributors and their ways.

I had my pad with me and wrote out a long hand quote for the work. I priced it way up as I knew there were many areas where I would have to back out and go around because of ravines, stone bluffs, and rivers.

Mervin gasped when I showed the bid to him and the engineer, but the engineer didn't seem fazed. I spoke up, "Mervin, if you want a printed formal bid, I can do this on my PC at home tonight. How do you want it?"

Mervin was grinning. "This is perfect, they will think they're dealing with a local yokel and beating someone out of some big bucks. I know you're fair, but this is a little more than I anticipated."

"Fuel, Mervin, fuel is the problem. This job is easily going to be three or four hundred gallons of fuel. At what diesel costs, the job is going run at least twenty percent higher. My time isn't cheap, and we have a lot of timber to cut up. Let's hope there's a lot more hickory and walnut than oak."

"Don't worry, Mike; they will pay this without batting an eye. You're more than fair, but higher than what I thought. I don't have to do the work, so I don't really know what's involved in doing this."

The engineer told me, "Make sure you're being fair to yourself. What we just walked is a hell of a lot of difficult terrain to go through. I'll recommend you get the bid right away, because I doubt anyone else would look at the job right and would have had us in a mess in a couple of places."

The Kitchen had a PC and printer that could copy a piece of paper, so I made myself a copy of the bid and told Mervin, "We will be working from the road to the main hub first. Considering how many men it's going to take to clear the timber, this could take a while. When I have that done, I'll be able to give you an estimate on the time for the rest of the runs."

Back at home, I found my two men working hard splitting wood. They now had over twenty cords of split wood stacked to cure inside posts. The pile of logs yet to be split made me think there was probably another twenty cords. That was even before we began splitting hickory.

I spoke to my two workers before I took them home. "Pedro, Jesus, listen carefully. Tomorrow, we will begin a job that will probably take a month or even more. If I only use you two, it could take two or three months, but the company who wants this done wants it faster, so I want you to find me four more men who can work. They will be cutting up trees and hauling them off. We'll use the John Deere and the big wagon to haul the timber out. I want all the walnut in logs, the same as now. Keep it separated so I can sell it instead of using it for the fires."

Pedro asked, "Do the men have to speak the English?"

"No, but if they don't, you will be busy telling them what to do. So if you get others that have a problem speaking English, they must be able to take direction from you, Pedro. If they argue with you, I'll fire them. Do you understand?"

"I do, Mike Grayson, I do. I will explain that to them. You are a good man to work for. You help with us getting to the job and you always pay us fair. We like to work for you."

"Pedro, should we wait a day before starting this job, or do you think you will have people to help starting tomorrow?"

Pedro was all puffed up, "We will have four more good men tomorrow. They will work hard or we will send them home." You knew he was serious, as Jesus was nodding his head in agreement. I was satisfied.

I picked up all of the workers the next morning. Four of them had to ride in the back of the pickup, but they didn't seem to mind. I had Pedro connect the John Deere to the big wagon, but only with the low fencing on the bed to hold firewood.

Ben drove my truck with men in it, leading Pedro with the tractor and wagon. I drove the big truck with the bulldozer in front of all of them so I could position the truck and trailer where I could get the bulldozer off. We were all unloaded and ready to begin working by nine, which was at least an hour before I thought I could be ready.

Pedro knew how I wanted to do stuff, so he watched as I used the GPS and compass with a spray can of yellow paint to mark the path of where I was going. The straighter the path, the better it will be. After marking a mile, I went back to the group and told Pedro, "I'm going to knock these trees down I already marked. There's a mix of oak and hickory, but there are three nice black walnut trees that we need to keep separate. If we do this right, we might come out way ahead. As soon as I cut down an oak or hickory, cut it for how we use it and load it on the wagon. After a mile, I'll let you catch up and I'll mark the next mile. Keep an eye out for any hickory that has fallen and is dry. We can cut that up and use it for the smoke house now."

I could see Pedro's eyes glaze over at the task that lay ahead of us. Hopefully, I could push the trees over instead of having to cut them and blow the stumps.

I was able to finish the first mile just after lunchtime, but no one had stopped. Ben had vanished and reappeared with the two women carrying baskets of sandwiches with iced tea and coffee. The men were coming right along and were stacking the main walnut logs and big limbs together for me to sell separately. Ben had already made a trip back to the farm with a wagon load of cut pieces to unload there.

We were making good progress with both Jesus and Pedro using the saws. The second mile was miserable, since the trees didn't want to be pushed over, and I had to go around them, on to the next to await that tree being cut down by saw, blowing the stump, and pushing the root ball out.

When I figured on what we had completed at the end of the day, we had cleared a good mile and a half, although I was through two miles with the bulldozer. Behind me, the men had cut most of three quarters of a mile, but the cutting and hauling was more than I anticipated. Thank goodness I figured this job big enough to retire on. I laughed at that, but I did overprice the job just for these contingencies.

When I had all of the men back at their home, I told Pedro, "I can use as many as six more tomorrow so you can keep up with me. I will buy saws tonight so we have the equipment. Find out who can use a saw and what other skills each of the men have. I'll pay you an extra two dollars an hour to be a working foreman, and Jesus an extra dollar an hour to be your assistant while we have so many working. Can you do that for me?"

You would have thought I just awarded Pedro the Pulitzer Prize the way he puffed up. He shook my hand profusely and promised to be ready for the morning and have another six men.

I had to hustle as the stores close early. At the big Tractor Supply store, I wanted to buy at least two twenty-four inch and one thirty-six inch chain saw. I also wanted a long two man hand-drawn crosscut saw for cuts where we couldn't use the big chainsaw. I found out I should buy the biggest toughest chainsaw and buy longer bars and chain to use with it. I also got a big DeWalt drill with a set of two inch spade bits on three foot extenders, and a small generator to power it. Drilling into the tap roots, either from the side or straight down, would make blowing the stumps quicker and safer because we could drop a quarter stick of the blasting gelatin into the holes and not even tamp them.

I might be getting in over my head.

The fancy store didn't have anything but one twenty-four inch, but said they could have what I wanted within a week. I bought the one they had and went down the street to a shop that I knew repaired and sold new and used outdoor equipment.

I walked in as two older men were chatting. The man behind a counter asked, "What can I do you for, Neighbor?"

I introduced myself, "I'm Mike Grayson from up on Mystery Mountain. I'm in need of a couple of big chainsaws and probably a little instruction. I've been doing okay with an eighteen and a twenty-four inch, but we've been cutting up a lot of trees that are over four feet across."

The man behind the counter looked at the old man on my side. The man on my side stuck his hand out, "Ezra Walker. Are you in the timber business?"

"No Sir, I'm clearing a cable path, something like a logging road, for Mervin and the cable company, and to do this I have to cut up a lot of trees. I'm keeping the oak and hickory to bust up for fire and smoke house wood, and I'm saving the walnut to see if I can sell it in the city."

The man across the counter said, "Ezra, this man might be the answer to your problem. Mister, ah, Mike, you said, right? Ezra here was hurt bad about a year ago and has found out he's never going to cut timber again. He was one of the only dependable men around, and since then all that's left is a bunch of shine feeders that work a half day and drink or recover the other half. Ezra has a bunch of equipment he's trying to sell to help with his retirement, so you two need to talk."

Ezra was trying to see inside me, and asked, "How many men you have working?"

"Normally only two but I brought four more on today, and another six tomorrow for a dozen total. I'm going to use my two main men as working foremen. The way the job is going, it's going to be at least a month, perhaps two months."

Ezra asked, "Any of those men experienced with timber?"

"I'm not sure about any of the new men, but both of my original two men have some experience."

"You know what you need, Mike Grayson? You need an old fart like me to show your men how to cut timber. Hire me to teach and I'll save you a lot of time and money. Buy my equipment at a fair price, and I'll work real cheap. Besides, I don't got nothing to do anyway."

Without really thinking about it I stuck my hand out and said, "You have yourself a deal, Ezra. How do we do this?"

Ezra grinned, "You tell me where to meet you and I'll show up tomorrow morning with a truck load of equipment. I'll show your men how to work, and watch them to make sure they don't kill themselves. I take it you're using that bulldozer to work ahead."

When the man behind the counter saw my confusion about someone knowing I was using a bulldozer, he said, "Everyone knows about Mike Grayson from up on Mystery Mountain. You've got quite a reputation for only being here a little over a year."

Ezra said, "I know you're using those Mexicans like George does. I knows some Spanish so I don't have no problem working with them. I used them to cut timber all the time. At least they usually don't spend all their time drinking shine."

Now I was beginning to feel as if I might have this project under control. "What else do I need, Ezra? Tell me so we're set for all day tomorrow at least."

"Just have plenty of fuel and oil for them saws, and a roll of extra chain wouldn't be bad. Get a box of keepers and you should be good to go. All my equipment is ready to go. Hell, I haven't had anything to do except rebuild my stuff and help Jimmy out here."

We made our plan to meet. He knew exactly where I was talking about, so I paid for my equipment before leaving for home.

Ben and the women surprised me. All of the chores were done, and food was on the stove waiting to go on the table. We discussed what all I was doing and how many new people there would be tomorrow. Ben was excited that Ezra was going to be working with me. He told me, "That man was one of the best timber men in the area. He could come on your land, cut out just the right amount of timber, and leave your place looking good and not like you raped it. The man knows his trees."

My eyes were drooping when it was bedtime. I took a quick shower and was sound asleep by ten.

I was wide awake at five, rushing through the chores and coming back in to shower, shave, and eat breakfast. The girls told me they knew how to do the chores and I shouldn't worry about them while I was doing this big job. That reminded me that I wouldn't have enough cash to pay everyone daily unless I went to the bank. That was something else to mess up my day.

I had Ben follow me when I went to pick the men up, since I couldn't bring ten men in the bed of my truck. Once at the site, we found Ezra already there in a big Ford F650 diesel with a long bed on it. The bed had a huge array of timbering tools on it.

I wondered whether or not I was expected to buy the truck, along with the tools. This is getting to be ridiculous. I now had more equipment than most contractors had. Ezra and I shook hands before he said, "I didn't know how much room you had out here, but I'll trailer the bobcat lift out here to drag the big stuff out. I have something for everything."

I was afraid of that.

I told everyone, "Let Ezra teach you and I'll be right back. I have to go into town for a minute."

The bank was surprised to see me waiting for them to open their doors. I wrote a check for cash to the tune of two thousand dollars and hoped that would carry me through the week. I really didn't put any numbers to paper, so it was just a guess. I made them give me all small bills to make it easier to pay each one individually.

Back at the site, I showed Ezra the trees I couldn't knock over, and said, "These are all walnut. Can you make sure they cut them as close to the ground as possible to save the good timber?"

"We'll do that for sure, Mike. Those big walnut trees will bring good money. I know the mills that pay the best. When we get a load, I'll haul them up to the mill and start you an account. Sometimes they'll come out to the job site to pick up what you have. It depends on whether you have enough for a load. You know, they'll take oak, too. They like some varieties over another, but I know which ones. We'll sell all of the black oak and haul it with the walnut. Everything else, we'll cut up the way you like in two or two and half foot lengths to split later."

I had made some good progress by lunch time, having pushed all the way to the first river that I would have to go around. On the way back, I could see the men were making headway cutting the trees I had left standing.

Everyone was crowded around Ben's truck, where my two women were handing out big tin cups of soup and fat sandwiches of roast beef. I'll bet these guys will be bragging to the other people they lived with about the good lunch they had.

I thanked Ben for doing all of this running. The old man smiled at me. "It's your gas and I get a free lunch out of it. This is better than fighting my goats for milk in the morning."

I told Ben, "You know what, I'm going to have to teach Mildred how to drive. I think she needs to be able to drive a pickup, so that if she needs something from in town, she can go get it instead of waiting for me. What do you think, Ben, think she can do it?"

"Probably, Mike. She already drives the tractor in the field and has made a couple of passes with the cultivator to make sure she can stay in the rows. She has been perfect so far. She hasn't dug anything up yet. I might begin teaching her a little. Your big truck is too big, but Bud's old truck would be the right size. You'll have to get her something with four wheel drive for the winter, but that will do for right now."

Ben and Ezra had a good time visiting. I could tell Ezra had a following of the Mexican laborers, since they all looked up to him as the boss.

After lunch, Ezra wanted me to blow all of the stumps he had ready and push the root balls out. He had found places for all of the root balls so far, so disposing of them would be easy. There are always washes to fill an area in with them. That pretty much killed the rest of the day, so we were loading equipment up around five thirty.

Ezra said, "Let me take all these saws home and sharpen them to make sure they are ready for tomorrow. We did a lot of work today and made good progress. We should be done with this side of the river by noon."

Paying twelve men was an adventure. I had to record every man's name, whether real or not, their social security number, real or not, and what their current address was. I was going to have to get someone to help me with this, since I was paying out too much money to not be able to take a tax deduction for labor.