Chapter 11

Thursday morning went a lot better than I anticipated. Ezra took over directing the cutting crew and had the men going full out right away. I worked on the other side of the river and I was able to knock over trees for a mile straight.

During the lunch that magically appeared, not only with Mildred and Summer but with Martha as well, I was telling Ezra that I needed to be off tomorrow as I had a lot of family coming in for my wedding. The man scolded me, "You didn't tell me you were getting married Sunday. Hell, I have to be there and I don't know whether my Sunday church suit is clean. Since my Rachel passed, I don't have the ear that hears all the gossip."

When the man quit grousing about me not telling him, he said, "Tell you what: you handle what you have to handle tomorrow, and I'll work these men to the river and start on the other side. You're getting way ahead of us. We have all of those balls ready to push into washes, so you might bring your dozer back here and finish this side. The distance you have cleared on the other side is more than we're going to be able to do tomorrow. If you want, I can pass their money out for you. I'll only work them eight hours tomorrow."

"That's great, Ezra. That we won't lose a day is excellent. How are you holding up? You said you weren't in the best of shape, but you've been pushing pretty hard."

"I'm fine, Mike," Ezra smiled and gave my arm a manly squeeze. "You've given my life a little extra push now that I'm not responsible for anything except teaching men how to work. It's pretty easy to point and talk."

"Ezra, you've been keeping the equipment in top condition to keep us working. That's a lot of effort."

"Not really, Mike," Ezra looked a little sad. "Since my Rachel passed, I don't have anyone to talk to in the evening, so working on the equipment is really special to me. Do you know Pedro has come by a couple of nights and most of the day yesterday to learn how to take care of the equipment? The man is a good one."

I brought the bulldozer back to their working side of the river and pushed root balls into washes and finished leveling the ground. We weren't building a path; we were building a timber road. By having a twenty foot wide road through the woods, work trucks would easily be able to follow the cable to check it. The only bad places were rivers, ravines, and bluffs, but we were going around the problems where we could.

I gave Ezra money in separate envelopes for all of the workers. They had to sign a form to get their money, so I was going to be covered one way or another. Pedro and Jesus were having money held back along with my contribution for taxes. Hopefully, that was taken care of for a while.

At home that night, Mildred was sewing a white shirt that was too small for me. I didn't think about it much until she told me, "Ben is going to give the bride away. The bride is me, Mike. I'm so excited. We didn't want to go to Wal-Mart, so I'm making him one along with a tie. Summer is going to be my maid of honor and has a nice gown. You'll get to see my gown on Sunday. Aren't you excited?"

Yep, I was excited, and a whole lot nervous. This is as bad as the anticipation of leaving one fire base to travel to another. You always thought about how this may be your last ride. You didn't dwell on it, but the thought did cross your mind.

Part of my excitement was the chance to see Mom, my siblings, and their kids. I was hoping to take all of them to the market on Saturday to let them see how country people have a social day bartering with each other.

I had a little wine to settle down tonight. Mildred was very loving, but said now that we were getting married, we should wait until we said our vows, then enjoy each other as a married couple. I didn't mind, but thought it funny the way women can put things in various categories, like little boxes.

Even the dogs were nervous Friday morning. They picked up on something in the air. I did the milking and feeding, as well as separating ten bales of hay to take to market Saturday. It was time to pull some bacon and hams, and hopefully have more from the butcher to put in the smoke house. I would pull the fresh smoked hams and bacon just before we left for market in the morning. The meat would still be warm. Mildred liked to tease customers by cutting a small thin slice of the ham and let them taste it. That was a sure way to get twenty bucks for only a fair sized ham. We always set up next to a man who sold various types of sausage. He was a valuable neighbor with his slicing machine. If someone wanted bacon, we would cut off the weight they wanted and let the sausage man run it through his slicer. We would give him a buck or two at the end of the day and we were all happy.

We had too much milk, so I told Ben I was going to run in with four five gallon cans. Hopefully, there will be buyers for that much on a Friday morning. We had not been to the daily market all week. As soon as I showed up, I was mobbed by people who had been waiting for my milk. I had made a mistake and already loaded the hay for tomorrow, and couldn't leave without selling it for a really good price. I ran some cream and butter by the Kitchen. The lady who owned the restaurant thanked me profusely, since she said she was dangerously low. I promised we would try to keep her better stocked. She asked if she could get at least twenty-four dozen eggs, as another farmer who she usually received eggs from had an animal get into his chickens and kill several. The chickens were now scared and upset and weren't laying.

I was still at the Kitchen drinking some coffee when my cell phone rang. "Well, Son, are you ready for your momma?"

"I sure am, Mom. How far out are you so I'll know when to look for you?"

"Well, Mr. Observant, check the doorway and check out your mom in jeans and a plaid shirt."

I turned to see Mom in some clothes I hadn't seen her wear since she left the farm. I went to her, and we had a great hug in front of everyone in the Kitchen at the time. After she went to the bathroom, we had a cup of coffee with the restaurant owner. She was telling Mom how she depended on us for her cream and butter, and was now needing to have us supply as many eggs as we could. Mom was amused, since she knew that chickens were not my favorite animal. They were good for eating and eggs for breakfast, but after that, I really didn't care for chickens.

"Are you ready to see my mansion, Mom?"

"I can't wait, Mike. I know how you are, but you already told me you had running water and indoor plumbing. Let's go up on your mountain and introduce me to Mildred and Summer."

Mom followed me out of town, turned off the highway with me, and followed me up the blacktop that became a gravel road on the way upward. When I went through the ford of the spring water runoff, I pulled forward and walked through the water back to her car to tell her not to worry as the ford was concrete. When she had pulled across, she got out of her car and went to the stream coming from the rocks and cupped her hands. She drank the water and smiled. "There's nothing like real water fresh from the ground."

The rest of the drive wasn't far or too bumpy, since I tried to run the bulldozer over the road about once a month.

Driving up my driveway, a person is treated to a beautiful sight. On the left is a tall rock bluff, seventy or eighty feet high. Nearer to the left, you can see the big garden, and then off in the distance around the mountain that way is the hay field. Nearer the bluff was the apple and pear orchard, and right up next to the bluff were the four long rows of vineyard. The way the buildings were placed, the chicken house was hidden by some bushes, but you could tell there was a building back there.

More to the right was an old freshly painted privy that was still useable if there was a plumbing problem. The house was another thirty feet to the right of that, behind a huge black walnut tree, with a wood picnic table in front of the porch. About fifty feet to the right was the machine shed and pump house, and directly behind that was the smoke house. There were stacks of split logs curing, as well as split logs waiting to be used in the smokehouse.

Farther to the right was the barn that was really a miniature of what picturesque barns looked like. My barn wouldn't hold a herd of stock, but it was just right for what I needed. I could use a bigger hayloft, but I would work on that. You could see the cows, the two steers, and calf grazing in the tall spring grass on that side of the barn. You could also see another field ready to be planted farther out from there.

Mom got out of her car and just stood, turning round and around, looking at everything. "Mike, this is beautiful. Everywhere I look I can see your dad. He taught you well, didn't he? If he was alive, he would be so proud. Now if you can keep these giant dogs off me, take me in to meet your family."

The dogs minded when I told them "down," so we walked to the house where Mildred and Summer were framed in the doorway. Mom stepped up on the porch that stretched the entire front of the house and walked right up to the girls. She held Mildred by her arms and said, "The way Mike has described you, I would know you anywhere. And you, Summer." Mom took hold of Summer and pulled her in for a hug. "I would know you, too. Now show me your home."

The house isn't that big, but a lot larger than your first impression. The big room that held the kitchen, the big table, and the chairs in front of the fireplace with the giant TV was really very large and airy. There were windows that let the mountain air flow through the house, pulling the everyday aromas out. A coffee pot was sitting on the back of the big wood stove, staying warm, and there was also a big pot on the stove that smelled like some kind of beans. There was the smell of something baking, so I figured on some corn bread to go with the beans.

I showed Mom the small bathroom and the two bedrooms, indicating she would sleep in the small one. While Mildred showed Mom the side porch where the washer and dryer were, she showed her the enclosed pantry area, with the shelves now full of jars of vegetables, pickles, and jams.

Back in the kitchen, Mildred showed Mom that we had a full refrigerator, then opened the spring house door on the back wall. Inside was a gallon jug of milk sitting in the cold spring water, and hanging over that, was a partially cut up ham and a half side of bacon.

Mom was smiling at me as Mildred got her a cup of coffee saying, "Mike is a good provider. We have a lot of food."

To Mildred, wealth wasn't in what we had physically or owned but how much food we had and how we were prepared for the future. Mom recognized this and enjoyed experiencing my intended's simple attitude.

"Come on, Mom; let me show you around the outside. You'll get a kick out of how the farm is laid out. Do either of you girls want to come with us?"

They were both going to stay, but Summer finally relented and asked, "Can I come with you?"

We walked over to the chicken house to show Mom how large the yard and building were. She was surprised at how many young turkeys were running around in the yard. She laughed at the few geese that were in the yard, along with some big white ducks. The crazy thing was that all of the guinea hens were in the yard getting a free meal.

We walked around the side of the chicken house, back to the bluff where the machinery is stored.

"Mom, how do you like my built in machine shed? Dry, out of the weather, and a perfect place to keep the machinery. Surprisingly, the caves at this level don't have bats. I thought it might be because we start the tractors up in here, but the other caves here don't have bats either."

We walked over to the orchard that was filled with blooms. We were going to have a great harvest this year. We walked through the vineyard and came to the back where the bluff was. There was the huge oak door built into the wall of the bluff. I opened it and flipped the light switch. I had run power back to this cave this past year. It was very impressive to see over a hundred barrels on stands lining the walls of the cave. The cool fifty-two degree temperature of the cave was apparently perfect for aging the wine, as I didn't seem to lose any to vinegar unless we pulled a gallon out and left it open in the warm air.

"So you really are making wine. How much of this is yours from last fall?"

I pointed at the other side of the cave. "There are still about thirty barrels of both kinds of wine, ten of some good stuff, and twenty of some so-so wine. People like both, so what do I know. I have a license and everything. I have to keep a record of what's on hand and what I sell, but that's so I pay the state and federal taxes. These barrels on this side are from the previous owner. He made wine and let it age for a long time. Some is pretty good."

We walked out of the wine cellar and over to a cave nearby that housed all of the winemaking equipment. "Mom, you'll have to come out and stomp the grapes. It would be a lot more fun to have dancing girls crush the grapes for me. This hand crank juicer is a bear to turn."

From there we walked to the barn where I showed her the small milking parlor area. She thought the big closet sized milk house where I washed cans and utensils was almost humorous. She did note that I had plenty of five and ten gallon cans on a rack, clean and ready to use.

We looked at the cows and Mom said, "I always told your dad that we needed a Jersey cow for cream and butter, but he said it would be too hard to keep the milk separated. He felt if he was going to ship milk, he would raise cows that gave a lot of milk. That's why we had Holsteins. Of course, when you went off to the Army, he didn't like having to deal with the help to milk. You did all of that, so that was the end of our dairy business. That was all right, as it was about then your dad was beginning to feel his age."

I think Mom enjoyed leaning up against the board fence with the cows on the other side checking us out. They would always come up to the fence if you were out looking at them, then lose interest and go back to eating.

Mom made the observation, "Your cow is just about to calve, isn't she? Here's hoping you get a heifer to raise for another milk cow. If you keep this up, you'll need a bigger milking parlor. You might even want electric milkers."

"Hopefully, that won't happen, Mom. If the health department catches me selling dairy products, I might be in trouble. I don't sell any unpasteurized milk for drinking. Only butter, buttermilk, cream, and cheese. If people buy a gallon and drink some, that is up to them."

We were walking back to the cabin when Mom said, "I'm surprised your sister or brother haven't called yet. They said they were coming up early. I hope they used your map. I drove right to the Kitchen and saw the motel across the street."

Back in the house, Ben was there to get some sandwiches for the workers. Summer and Mildred were finishing putting a big basket together for them. I had to explain to Mom about some men working today so they didn't lose a day's wages. She said, "When we finish with lunch, will you show me where you are working right now? I want to see this bulldozer you bought. Is it a real big one or one of the mini-tractors?"

"It's a big one, Mom, big enough to have an eight foot blade. It's also heavy enough to push over a big oak or hickory. We'll ride that way after lunch. Ezra will get a kick out of meeting my mom, the farm girl."

We had some delicious navy beans, with big chunks of ham, over the top of cornbread. One thing Mildred was getting really good at was making iced tea for me. I didn't care for the sugar, but Mom liked hers sweet. Summer saw Mom put sugar in her tea and tried some. Her eyes lit up and she said, "You should have told me that you can put sugar into the tea."

After we cleaned up after lunch, the four of us rode down to where we were working on the first run to a distribution building. I showed them how far back we had cleared, then gave all four a ride on the big bulldozer. We rode around to where I was going to begin working again on Monday. Mom wanted to see me knock a tree over, so I picked a small oak of about fifteen inches in diameter and pushed it over. She was impressed.

I shut the dozer down and we all walked back across the river to where the other vehicles were parked.

As we got ready to leave, Ezra got me off to the side, "I know you talk to Harold, and we both know he is an open minded man, but you might ask him if it's all right if all these men come to church on Sunday. They want to see you get married and know it's after church. Why don't you call Harold and give him a heads up. Hell, the next thing you know, these men will be going to church with us."

After loading the girls up, I took them toward town, thinking my brother and sister should be here any minute. I called Harold on the way and explained about my men. He was happy they wanted to share church with us. He asked if many spoke English, and I told him they understood pretty well, so it wouldn't be all over their heads. Harold just said, "We'll just have to bring all of the chairs up from the meeting room and put them wherever we can. Sounds like a great Sunday to me."

I pulled up to the Starlight hotel and could see three cars with Ohio tags parked there. As we got out, I could hear why they had not called yet. There were squeals of happy kids, along with a lot of splashing sounds, coming from behind a big wood-screened area.

We walked into the office, and there we met a lady. "Selma? I'm Mike Grayson."

"Hi, Mike, I recognize you from church. Your family is all here and as soon as they saw the sign for the heated pool, all of them were in, even your uncle and aunt. Go on out there while they wear those kids out."

I introduced Selma to my mom, Mildred, and Summer, before going out to the pool area.

My sister was in her smaller than usual swimsuit and came running up to give me a hug. She could hardly stand still long enough to be introduced to my ladies, but did stand there long enough that my sister-in-law came over to give me a hug. My brother and brother-in-law were in the water playing with the kids. Both gave me a wave, then it was time for Uncle Sid and Aunt Mabel. Uncle Sid wasn't that old, but acted about ninety. Aunt Mabel showed she was up there, but had a body to rival my sister's and showed it off. She came up to me and put a real lip lock on me, along with a full body press. "I'm so happy to know that you're finally getting married. Sid and I have worried about you for years. I always told Sid that I was going to have to teach you what this boy girl stuff was all about. Too bad; I guess you learned on your own."

Those two enjoyed meeting Mildred and Summer, and Mabel was trying to get Mom to put on one of her swimsuits. I would have liked to see that, as everything Mabel owned showed her top and butt off. For ladies their age, Mom and Mabel were pretty well built.

Mildred pulled my head down to ask me, "They are coming to supper tonight, aren't they?"

I had not thought of it, but Mildred had. I nodded and announced so all could hear, "Mildred has a wonderful supper cooking for you tonight, so if you guys can make it, I need to show you the way to get up to the house."

My brother asked, "I thought this was a tiny place. How are you going to feed all of us?"

"If Mildred says she can, she will. I don't know what's for supper, but I'd bet it is going to be good."

Mildred was standing next to me with a big smile. She had something planned. I think the right expression is 'something cooked up.'

With some extreme effort by Mom, the kids were encouraged to get out with the promise of more pool time tomorrow. When we finally had everyone in their cars, we made a parade getting out of town toward my mountain. A funny thing happened when I stopped on the other side of the spring ford. All three of the cars stopped and everyone was out of the cars, cupping their hands to get a drink of the cold water as it gushed from the rocks. I knew my sister and brother were remembering our youth.