Chapter 13

The next morning after making sure Ezra was set up; I went to town to deposit the cash from yesterday. I kept out about fifteen hundred and deposited nearly six thousand. Who would believe that walnut and black oak would be worth that much?

With all of the receipts in hand, I called Maude to make sure it was okay to come by her house. She told me the side door was for her office and for me to just come in.

When I walked in the door, I was a little shocked. Maude was dressed in some tight shorts with a top that was far too loose for my comfort. When she stood to get something from a file cabinet, I noticed she was barefoot. This was a strange bookkeeper. When she put the file on her desk and opened it, she leaned over the desk, giving me a view all the way down her loose blouse. She wasn’t real big chested, but it was enough to turn on any man checking her out.

Maude looked up at me, noting my interest down her blouse and winked. “See what you missed, Mike. You and I could have had some good play time. Now that you’re married, I’ll have to try to talk Mildred into sharing.”

I must have been beet red by now, since I felt like my face was on fire. “Sorry, Mike. I didn’t mean to embarrass you. That’s not true; I did want to get to you a little. I don’t get much chance to tease, as you can guess, and the good men around here are all taken. I’ll have to be a little more aggressive toward potential partners when they show up here in town.”

The cable company engineer came to mind. “Maude, since Mervin is one of your customers, talk to him about meeting the cable company engineer. He mentioned he was going to be staying around here to maintain the equipment. He seems to be a nice man and wasn’t wearing a wedding ring.”

Maude looked at me funny, “This is funny, I’m putting the make on a married guy, and he’s telling me of another man opportunity. God, I love you, Mike. You’re a real jewel. I’ll talk to Mervin, but since you know the guy, invite me to have lunch with you and him. Trust me, Mike, if he is decent and I’m not talking about the looks department, I’ll convince him to have some interest in this bookkeeper.”

We went over what Ezra and I had agreed on for his equipment. I asked Maude, “Do you think this is fair? That seems like a lot of equipment, with his truck and that loader included, for the little amount of money he’s asking?”

“I’m sure it’s fair, Mike. Used equipment isn’t worth much, and that old truck saw its better days fifteen years ago. The way Ezra takes care of his equipment makes it look newer than what it is. Just let him do his thing working with your crew, and you’ll be making him a happy man. He thinks a lot of you and will teach you a lot. I know you weren’t planning on being in the timber business, but there are worse things to do. If you don’t want to be all out cutting, set Ezra up with a crew and teach one of the men how to operate that bulldozer of yours.”

As I was getting ready to leave, Maude advised, “I do the oil distributor’s books and have the names and numbers of the people he used for repairs to the bulldozer. When you need to have it worked on, call me.”

Maude was an interesting lady. She sure gave me a thrill this morning.

I called Mervin to get the engineer’s cell number. When he answered the phone, I asked, “Gene? This is Mike Grayson, the guy doing the cable path for you. If you want, how about joining me for lunch today? I’m going to be at the Kitchen with my bookkeeper, and thought you might want to join us so I can bring you up to date on the progress.”

“Sounds good, Mike. I really haven’t met many people here in town. Between the Starlight and the Kitchen, that’s about it. I went to the Saturday market this last week, and had a great time looking at what people were selling or bartering for. I’ll see you around noon.”

I called Maude and when she answered, “How about putting on some less revealing clothes and some shoes. You have a lunch appointment with me and Gene, the cable company engineer. He sounds ripe for the picking too. He’s been here two weeks and really hasn’t found his way into the people flow yet. Right up your alley, Maude.”

“You’re so bad, Mike. I didn’t put clothes on just for you when I got up this morning. I dress like this all of the time, but most of the people only walk into my office and walk out. Most don’t stand there and look down my blouse to assess the size of my nipples.”

“I’ll be faster in and out next time, Maude, and I promise not to stare.”

“Mike, you better check me out when you’re here. Otherwise, I won’t know I’m a woman worth being checked out. You can gawk all you want.”

“Lunch, Maude, we’re getting off track. I’ll call Mildred to see if she might want to come to town for lunch. She can bring some eggs to the Kitchen.”

Before calling Mildred, I called the Kitchen to see what they might need if Mildred was to come. They wanted as many eggs as we could spare, along with what butter and cream we had. The lady told me, “Just bring in two of the five gallon cans and we’ll separate the cream. That way we can have the milk for drinking.”

I was going to have to get Mildred a cell phone, since I needed to be able to talk to her sometimes. Instead, I called Mom’s phone and hoped it was on. She answered and I told her I needed to talk to Mildred.

“Mildred, do you want to come to town to have lunch with me? I’m going to have lunch with the cable company engineer and Maude, the bookkeeper. I thought you might want to come in. I talked to the Kitchen and they want as many eggs as we can spare, and a couple of five gallon cans of milk.”

“Oh, Mike,” Mildred exclaimed, “I’m glad you called when you did. Your mom and I were just about to churn up everything we have for butter. We’ll still have twenty gallons for that and that will make up a lot of butter. I’ll get Summer to get all the eggs we have together and load a couple of cans in the little truck. We’ll see you at the Kitchen.”

Hmmm, she said, “We’ll see you at the Kitchen.” I supposed Mom might come along, but knowing them, it would be Summer, Mom, and Mildred. Oh well, I might as well enjoy the company.

I went by Tractor Supply to get more bulk grease for the dozer. I bought three twenty-five gallon cans of oil, as I needed to change the oil bath air filter, as well as the engine oil. They had the fuel filters I needed, so I bought those, along with some of the gear box fluid. So far, the hydraulics has been perfect, but I also haven’t been trying to overload the bucket.

Just as I thought, Mildred showed up, driving with Mom and Summer. Mildred said they had dropped lunch off at the work site. They had brought two cases of twelve dozen eggs each. I heard Summer tell the lady from the Kitchen she could get her up to three more cases if she needed them. We dropped the milk cans off and tied her empties in the trunk bed.

Just like clockwork, the four of us were just about to find a table when Gene, the cable company engineer, and Mervin walked in the door. Coming in after them was Maude. I waved them all over to a big table where I introduced everyone and made sure Maude and Gene were sitting next to each other. If she was half as aggressive with Gene as she had been with me, I thought both of them would have a nice evening.

Mervin kept trying to talk business with Maude, but she was more interested in Gene. He was the typical guy, and just belched out personal information while being flattered that a good looking lady like Maude was interested in him.

Mervin told me, “I didn’t think you were moving very fast at first, but you’ve almost finished the first path. You’ll probably be done with it this week. The cable company is thinking they might want two more paths out from the central hub, and are thinking of a path all the way to Pine Ridge. That’s going to be expensive.”

It sounded like I’d never get done with this job to add on to my place. I might have to pause between projects to do what I need to do for me and not someone else. If we were to build the same path all the way to Pine Ridge, that could take most of six months, possibly as much as a year. I was sure they will want distribution paths for there as well. That would be another couple of months or so. We’re talking long term and big money. Gene told me, “Mervin has just heard about this, but I’ve known for a while they were thinking of making that jump. I’ve already told them they would be stupid to do business with anyone else but you. The way you’re making it easy for the line crews to move around, they will save a fortune in labor getting the total job done.”

Mervin was excited, “See, Mike, I told you I would get you fixed up.”

When I had finished eating, I asked Mom, “How about taking Mildred to the Sheriff’s office? Today is the driver’s license day there. She can take her exam, the eye test, and the driving test if you think she’s ready. I’m going to get back out to the job site and make some more work for the men.”

Everyone got up except Gene and Maude, who looked like they were going to have another cup of coffee together. I think I did a good thing for both of them. Maybe Maude would find her a man.

Before the ladies left, I checked the tied down empty milk cans so they wouldn’t shift during the driving test. I thought it funny that Mildred had been able to learn to drive a manual transmission truck so easily. After having to use the clutch on the dozer, moving the feet and hands were not that difficult. I figured that if Mildred didn’t do well that day, I would work with her to make sure she would pass the next time.

Back at the job site, the big logging truck was out again, loading up another big load of logs. The logs looked like almost all walnut on this load, and I could see another load of big logs, plus a load of limbs stacked, waiting. This job was going to pay.

Ezra waved me over to him and told me, “I have a pile of cash in the cab of my, or rather, your truck. They haven’t given me the money for this load yet, but it should be as much as the other big load they took this morning. Their first load was all limbs and small trees, and this makes their third load. They gave pretty good on the limbs and small trees. The foreman said that the price for wood is way up lately. They told me if I could get kids to pick up the walnuts when they are brown they would pay good money for the outer shells to make dye and stain. I was thinking that we could get some church kids to pick up a few big loads. That would give the church a few extra dollars. What do you think?”

“Sounds good, Ezra. How much ahead am I, and do I need to push harder to get way up ahead?”

“You’re more than a day ahead of us now. If you push, you’ll be through to the distribution point today. When you get all the way through, you need to go back and walk what we’ve done to make sure the width is consistent all the way. When you finish with that, submit your bill for that half. The second path will be tougher, but you’ve already planned on following the road a lot of the way to avoid the ravines and bluffs.”

It took twenty minutes or so to do the daily service on the bulldozer, before firing it up to begin for the day. I also did all the functional and safety checks like OSHA required, even though it was mostly just me with the dozer. They all made sense and could detect a defect before it caused an injury to a person or to the dozer. As I neared the distribution point, someone had put in grade stakes with orange ties on them showing me a wider path. There were also grade stakes all around the distribution point, along with some markings going out to the main road. The service road they had built was not very good, so I worked on that to smooth it out. If they were to haul rock in, it would make access and parking a lot better.

I was walking the cleared area around the distribution building when Gene drove up. When he got out, he waved at the cleared area and said, “I suppose you’ll have to give me a bid on what you’ve already done. I should have known you would go ahead and finish this up while you were working it.”

“Gene, you need to call and order several loads of rock to spread out for your access road and parking area up by the building.”

The man nodded and said, “Include it with your bid, and I’ll approve it on the spot. I want rock around the building out at least thirty feet. How many loads do you think that will take?”

“Who knows, Gene? I’ll call for a couple of loads so I can grade the access road and have them give me an estimate. I should have a number for you in a couple of hours.”

I called the trucking company in town to see if they could bring a couple of loads of gravel and give me an estimate of what else I would need. The man asked if this was for putting gravel over an old road or for a new road. He told me that new road gravel should be larger because it would work down into the soil and form a road bed. We could put smaller gravel on top to smooth it out later if we wanted. They promised two loads of large rock within an hour.

Sure enough, the two trucks showed up and started just off the main road and dumped their loads fairly evenly getting all the way to the area that would be used for parking. There were still a lot of trees knocked down that had to be cut up, but I told them I could have it cleared by tomorrow afternoon. They gave their estimate of fifteen more loads of big gravel, and were beginning to leave, when one of the men got me off to the side.

The guy stuck his hand out to shake, “Mike, I’m Ralph Cummings, the owner of the trucking company. I doubt if you would know this, but I’m the road commissioner for this part of the county, your township. I’m not running for that job this year, and I thought you might want to do it. It pays decent, but I’m just not into working on roads everyday. If you decide you want to run for the job, I’ll help you get a better budget and I can sell you two big graders, a couple of rollers, a front loader, and a couple of salt trucks with snow blades. The black top for paving new and renewing over old is done by the state. You have to patch any holes between the resurfacings. Your main job is to keep the county roads smoothed out and graveled when needed. There are always holes and washes, but I see you know how to do that. Think about it, Mike, I’ll be selling you enough rock to make you a deal on the equipment. You can store your road salt, snow trucks, and the other equipment in the big county road equipment lot next to my place. I’m adding a concrete plant as there is starting to be enough business to justify one if you include Pine Ridge. I’ll be able to supply material up along the highway too. If you want big work up there, I’m sure I can get it for you.”

I just stood and stared at Ralph Cummings. What the heck is this all about, me, road commissioner? Doing what, keeping roads graded and rocked? Plowing snow all winter? I don’t think so, though I would think about it.

I told Gene, “Run down and bring Ezra back so he can see what needs to be done in the morning. I’ll smooth this gravel out and push the extra up toward the building.”

Too bad I didn’t have one of those rollers to smooth this out a little. It would be good enough with the big tracks running back and forth.

I finished that and was pushing trees into a pile out of the way, so the gravel trucks could lay their rock down within the perimeter they wanted. When they got back, Ezra walked around and looked at what I had completed and told me, “We’ll be able to cut this up and clear it in the morning. We’ll have to pull the good wood out and trim it up first, before we cut up the other. You just push those root balls into the washes on the other side of the road and this will be done. We’ll go back and work our way up again when we’re done here.”

By the time the day was nearly done, I had the area smoothed out good, ready for the rock. While I was finishing up, I did the quick air filter oil bath change and changed the engine oil. It’s hard to believe how much oil these big motors hold. With the bulldozer taken care of, I walked back to my truck as all of the men were coming from the cable path. Ezra took a big drink of water, then poured himself some lukewarm coffee from his thermos, “A day and half, Mike. We’ll have this one done. How soon do you want to start on the next run?”

“What do you think, Ezra? Should we give these guys a break, or move ahead? From what I was told today, they may add paths in two more directions, and might want a cable path all the way to Pine Ridge.”

“Hot damn, I’ll have something to do all the way through winter. This is getting better and better. You know, you’re going to have to buy me some equipment. I’m running through a lot of chain and sharpening equipment. So far, I think all of the men can now handle a saw and they know what to do. You should hear them, Mike, they are all trying to only speak English out here. It’s funny to listen to them, but they are trying. The ones who need green card help are going to bring their information in for you to take to Benson. If you keep this up, you’ll have a legal crew here pretty soon.”

“You know, Ezra, I hate the fact that I’m not hiring locals to work. I’ve posted notices all over and have found out the younger guys are working on their home farms, and the ones who are not, all want to grow funny tobacco and drink all day. It sure doesn’t make sense.”

“That’s the way it’s always been, Mike. There are slackers in life that never amount to anything. Around here, they don’t turn into thieves, because they know someone will shoot them. Every once in a while, there’ll be someone showing up on the side of the road with several extra holes. It’s usually someone the Sheriff has been looking for and that no one cares about.”

“Ezra, how about coming home with me to eat supper with us tonight? You’ll enjoy the good cooking the women have been doing. What do you say?”

“You mean that?”

“I do, Ezra; you can leave your truck here or drive it up to the house. We can leave it there and you drive the little pickup home, or you can take the big truck home tonight.”

“I’ll take you up on supper, Mike. Sounds like something I’ve missed for a long while. I’ll take the truck and drive it home. I’m so used to driving that big ole truck; I wouldn’t know how to drive a little one.”

I called Mom’s cell phone to tell them I was bringing Ezra for supper. Mom laughed, “Just like it was when you were around, huh, Mike? You’re always bringing someone home for supper. Well, bring him on.”

We drove up to the house and Ezra got out and looked around. “Mike, the place looks really good. It was getting a little rundown, but it looks good now. You’ve really got the place looking lived in and successful. And look out there. Do I see three cows, two steers, and a calf? You’re becoming a real farmer.”

We went by the pump house to wash up there, so that we wouldn’t track all of the big dirt in. When I sat to take my shoes off at the door, Ezra did the same and commented, “You know, I always did this at home, but when my Rachel passed, I became a bit of a slob. I’m going to get back into some better habits.”

Ben and Ezra had a good time telling Mystery Mountain stories to us. I’m sure they embellished all of their tales, but it seems there have been mysterious things happening on Mystery Mountain long before the Revolutionary war. The local Indian tribes thought the mountain was haunted and kept away. Even then, they wouldn’t hunt on the mountain and were always apprehensive because so many bears lived on and near the mountain. One of the reasons the mountain became mysterious was there were no bats in the caves on this mountain. That was enough to spook many Indians. Another was that hunting parties had come to the mountain and disappeared. How true that was is a matter of interpretation of the old stories.

When I told the two that I hadn’t been up to the caves on top of the mountain yet, both of the men looked at me funny. Ben said, “Don’t go up there. I don’t know what the deal is, but that has always scared me to death. There’s something spooky around that area. You know that’s where the eagles’ nests are. You should leave that area for the eagles and forget about exploring it.”

That just made the mystery that much more inviting. I knew I’d check it out one day. It was going to be hunting season soon and I wanted to clean out some of the extra deer that were around. They were already snacking in our garden at night. I might have to make the dogs stay out at night in order to keep the deer and other animals out.

After supper, Ezra told us, ‘ thank you’ a dozen times before putting his boots on to go home. I walked out with Ben and Ezra as they went to their trucks. Ben said, “You’d better get back in there. Your Mildred is bursting to tell you the news. She is really proud.”

“I figured on her passing that test, Ben. You and Mom have done a good job with her. I suppose it’s Summer’s turn to learn. If I keep this up, I’ll have to make a deal on another pickup for Mildred. I suppose another four wheel drive would be a good addition around here.”

Back inside, the ladies had the table cleared, but had poured glasses of wine sitting on the table. Mom came to the table and held a glass up; “This is a toast to your bride, Mildred, or Millie as she says I should call her. Congratulations for passing all the tests and becoming a licensed driver in the state of Kentucky.”

We all took a drink of our wine. I took Mildred into my arms and hugged her before giving her a good husbandly kiss. “I’m proud of you, Mildred, or is it ‘Millie’ now. It is good that you can now get around when you need to. I need to set you up with a debit and credit card at the bank, and for you to have some money in your pocket, or is that your pocketbook or purse.

Mildred said, “I don’t have a purse. They look like a good idea, but it’s just something else to carry around. Your mother doesn’t carry a purse. She has one that she usually leaves in the truck or her car.”

Mom told Mildred, “I hate to carry a purse. I have this little wallet with a credit card, some cash, and my driver’s license. I really don’t need anything else. Around here, I’ll probably be wearing jeans most of the time, just like you, Millie, so we’ll find you a little case like mine, a little wallet.”

Summer was checking Mom’s wallet out and asked, “If you have change like pennies, dimes, and such, where do you carry that? Martha carries change in her purse.”

Mom pushed her hand into her pocket and pulled out a small handful of change. “Don’t wear your pants too tight and use the pockets. That’s what they’re for.”

Mildred asked me, “Can you give me money to go to the store? Summer and I need more jeans. We are wearing out the ones we have. And, a, ah, our jeans are getting a little tight. We’ve grown since we’ve come here.”

I went to my little satchel and counted out two hundred dollars. “Here is two hundred. Buy what you need and keep the rest in the wallet you will buy. That way, if you’re in town, you can go to the Kitchen to eat or to one of the stores for something you need.”

Mom wasn’t any help, “Millie and Summer, that means you can get something that you don’t necessarily need, just something that you want.”

I held my finger up, “Wait here a minute. I have something in the truck for you, Millie. Let me get it.”

I had forgotten that I had stopped by Walmart for a quick purchase. I brought in a small box that had a picture of a cell phone on the front of it. “Until we get a phone up here, this phone will work for you here and around town. You will be able to call me if you need me, and call Mom when you want to talk to her. Let’s get this out and charge it up.”

Mildred’s eyes glowed with pride at having her own cell phone. As I watched Summer, I could see I needed to get her one too. She was fascinated with what she could do with the small piece of electronics. She went to the desk and found a small piece of paper. She asked, “Can I send a message to Bradley? He has a cell phone and told me to use yours to send him a message. I can call him too, right?”

Mom was laughing, “Son, you better put your shoes on and run to get Summer a phone. Come on, Girls, let’s go to town and get another phone.”

This was funny, as it was the first time Summer had asked for anything special. I suppose she really didn’t ask for it, but made it clear she wanted something.

While I helped Summer pick out a cell phone, Mildred and Mom found a couple of wallets just for women and what they needed. They were looking pretty smug when they returned. Summer was fooling with the new cell phone and wanting to hurry home to charge the battery. The salesperson was able to help us set the phone up with its new number.

Back up on the mountain, Summer put her phone on the charger, and as soon as she could, she sent Bradley a message. A minute later, her phone chirped with Bradley’s response and the two were off to the races.

I was getting tired, so I told all, “I’m going to bed. I’ve had a busy day and will have a busier one tomorrow. If we get done early, we’ll go to town and look for another truck for you, Millie. I’m sure we need to keep it a manual transmission, since you’ve never driven an automatic. So, don’t drive Mom’s car or you’ll get spoiled. We’ll find you something you like.”

As Mildred came into the bedroom with me, she said, “I want a truck, not a car. This way I can carry stuff from here to town and back without having to wait for you or Ben.”

I stripped and was between the sheets in an instant. Mildred kissed me and...

Morning seemed to come fast, but it was as usual, since there were heads on each of my shoulders; Summer on my left, Millie on my right. I kissed Millie to see if she would wake and only received a grunt. I did the same with Summer and all she did was want to snuggle more.

Extracting yourself from those types of embraces is tough, but it can be done. I did it. Before doing my thing in the bathroom, I let the dogs out, stirred the ashes in the wood stove, and stuck a couple of pieces of wood in to warm up the coffee on the back of the stove. The fireplace was just about out, so I stirred it up and put a small log on, as well as a larger one so they would eventually catch to warm the morning mountain chill.

I did my bathroom stuff and came out to have some of the old coffee. As I was sipping the warmed coffee, Mom came from her room and gave me hug on the way to getting herself some coffee. She took a sip and looked over the top of the mug, “Ready for another day, Son? You know, I’m having the time of my life sharing all of this with you. You were always the dependable one at home, and you still are. Let me stir the two sleepyheads before we go out to the barn.”

She went into the bedroom and obviously woke the two, as they came stumbling from the bedroom while rubbing the sleep from their eyes. Mom said, “The girls were so excited by their cell phones and that you are going to get Millie a truck that they couldn’t wind down. I had to go to bed while the two of them were still gabbing.”

Mom and I went out to the barn and found Ben already inside with the cows. Mom cleaned up a couple buckets while I put some hay out for the outside stock. There was an extra animal with the two steers and growing calf this morning. A young male deer with his first nubs was hanging out with the steers as if he was supposed to be there. The only animals that found this to be strange were the dogs. They were sitting near the fence staring at the young buck. When I walked in front of the steers, the deer didn’t pay any attention to me and continued to feast on the hay.

After finishing with the pigs, I went into the milking parlor to tell Ben and Mom about the deer. They were finishing up, so I told them, “Take your milk inside and I’ll clean up out here. Go check on that deer. It’s the strangest thing I’ve ever seen.”

Ben and Mom took their buckets into the milk house to pour through the filter, while I let the cows out before doing the super duper pooper scooper routine and cleaned up where the milking was done. Funny how I remembered doing this as a pre-teen and teen when I was growing up. Times never really change.

I went through the milk house and saw that the buckets had been washed and the milk cans were in the spring house. Mom and Ben were up at the tall wood fence, leaning on it and looking at the animals. The cows were their usual curious selves and were up at the fence licking the salt from the humans’ pants before getting bored and going back to whatever it was they had been doing before milking.

The young buck was close to the fence and was almost up to where he could have stretched out and licked either Ben or Mom. He seemed very tame, considering humans were within a few feet of him. Mom told me, “Go get Millie and Summer. I’ll bet Summer made a pet of this one. Go get them.”

I told the two girls to pull the breakfast away from the hot spots and come out to the barnyard to see a visitor. They followed me out.

As soon as Millie and Summer came close to the fence, the young buck walked up to Summer and licked the hand she had stuck out. Summer said, “I know I shouldn’t make a pet of an animal I may need to eat, but I found this one when he was little and didn’t know what to do. I ground grass up into mulch and fed him until he could eat grass on his own. We’ve been friends since, but I haven’t seen him for a long time.”