Chapter 14

No one really gave me any advice when I talked about the road commissioner's job. Ezra wanted me to do it. Ben didn't really know what was required, or what a road commissioner does. Millie and Summer were clueless when it's outside of food and home. They had lived so long thinking about their next meal and what they could do to have food the next day that they didn't, or couldn't, think about much more than that yet. Mildred easily took to buying, selling, and bartering, and recognized value received for value given, but she still didn't understand money all that well.

Summer had learned a lot from some of the television she watched, so she knew the items advertised require money to purchase them, but she still didn't understand quantities or amounts of money.

Mom somehow seemed to be getting through to both of them, teaching them a lot of basic knowledge that I would have thought people would naturally know. Mom recognized the holes in Mildred's knowledge. I wondered if Millie was slow, or if she just never learned. She and her brother lived in Lexington for a long while. He worked for the railroad and she took care of Summer until they ran because they thought they would be prosecuted for the railroad robbery or incest. They were young and realistically innocent-minded, as well as innocent of the robbery that they thought they were suspects for. I needed to find out more about Mildred's parents. What happened to them? Why were the kids alone so young?

This was going to be a busy day, so I knew I had better get up and get going.

I kissed Mildred on the forehead to wake her and moved over the top of her to get out of bed. She grabbed my hips and whispered, "I don't want to get up yet, I want more of what we had last night."

"Millie, Honey, we need to get going, today's market day."

"I know, Mike; I just love the way we cuddle and love."

From the other side of the bed, "Will you two get up? How am I supposed to get an extra minute's sleep with you two yakking?"

Millie kissed me and let go so that I could slide from bed. Mildred sat up after whacking Summer on her butt. "I'll try to interrupt you when you're trying to get some good morning cuddles."

It only took me a minute to dress, visit the bathroom, and head for the bench to put my boots on. As I was finishing lacing up my boots, Mom came from her room and said, "Another great day on the farm, Mike. I just love it up here. I wonder what it's like with everything covered in snow. I'll bet it gets downright cold."

"It gets cold, Mom, but you get used to it. The one thing I worry about is the pipes freezing up. I've enclosed and insulated the pump and water tank better, and put in a small electric heater for that room. I made sure the water lines into the house and out to the barn are at least thirty-six inches deep now, so we will have water as long as we have electricity. I suppose I could have a back up coal oil heater for the pump house, but I could probably bring a gas line in and put a small gas heater in. If I do either, I'll have to remember to vent that room."

While we were doing the chores, Ben drove up with his goats' milk and the few eggs he had to sell. He was down to about fifteen chickens who collectively only laid about a dozen eggs a day. Mildred and Summer made sure enough hens were setting on eggs to keep hatching out more and more chicks so that we now had nearly two hundred hens laying, which means about twelve dozen or so a day. We didn't have any trouble selling all of them as people liked the idea that all of our eggs were brown and bigger than leghorn eggs.

Mildred was excited to be driving her new/used red truck to market. When it was time, Mom rode with Mildred and Summer, while Ben rode with me. On the way, Ben wanted to know, "If you were to be the road commissioner and take care of the roads around here, would you get paid enough to keep the road up here cleared in the winter? Would you have to clear the state roads?"

"The biggest problem in clearing the back roads like ours is the time it takes to clear the state roads. The state pays the counties and the county budgets that money to the road commissioners for clearing, salting, and minor repairs. I would think the state pays by road miles, and we have more state road miles than the other townships, so I'll have to look into that. If I was to do it right, there should be enough money to take care of all of the roads. Getting them into good shape will take the most effort, time, and money. I suppose the only thing to do is to look over all of the roads and figure out what it will take to do the job."

As soon as I parked the truck with the camper in the equipment sales area, people were coming over to the camper to check it out. It was a curiosity, so a lot of people wanted to look. I pulled the generator out on its slide and started it to show the lights and appliances inside. Just for fun, I went to the little café at the market and begged some coffee grounds so that I could have a fresh coffee smell inside the camper.

I had made a list of all the good features of the camper, like the generator, gas stove and heater, small air conditioner, 12 and 120 volt refrigerator, thirty pound,7 1/2 gallon horizontal propane tanks and most important a tiny bathroom with a shower head. The water tank was only forty-five gallons, the grey water tank was only a thirty-four, and eighteen gallon black water tank, but that should be enough for people traveling in a camper like this. A lot of truck bed campers didn't have a dinky bathroom at all.

Men would go inside, read the list, poke around, and come back out. When asked how much I was asking, I told each one that it would be the best offer at the end of the day. I had a little white board outside the door where I posted the amount of the highest bid and the name of the bidder.

Good ole' Leo Toll was always at the Saturday market with a couple of trucks to show off and came by the camper. He was quick to put a pretty good number of nineteen fifty on the board. He gave me his cell phone number and told me to call him if someone offered more. This was getting good, as I didn't think I would get much more than fifteen hundred, if that.

A young guy came by and wanted to know if I would give him the bed clamps and stands if he bought the unit. He said he was planning a two or three month vacation this summer. There were hand and foot bars on the back of the camper that were like a ladder to the top that I had never used. The young guy climbed up and said, "I can put a lot of stuff up here if I don't want to pull a trailer."

He asked about how warm it was in the winter, and I told him that I had been in it before when it snowed and was very comfortable. I did say if I was to have to stay in it very long, that I would probably get cabin fever or claustrophobia. He left and came back with his dad, who poked around for a long time, testing everything. He looked at the board and pulled me away from everyone, "I'll bet Toll wants you to call him if someone makes you a better offer. I think you have something my boy will be able to use, and it is in really nice condition. We've been looking and know how much these long bed campers cost. It might be worth more, but I'll tell the boy to give as much as seventy-five hundred, and I think that ought to be top dollar for him. Take this into the city and you might get up near nine. Will all the dishes, cups, pots, and pans go with it?"

"It's all a package. You know me and where I live; I don't need or have time to use something like this."

"Nope, you sure don't and the way Ralph was talking, if you take over the road commissioner's job, you will have less time. Call Toll and tell him you have a seven thousand dollar bid and see what he does."

I put my cell phone on speaker and called Leo Toll, "Hi, Leo, this is Mike Grayson about the camper. I have a bid for seven thousand, are you still interested?"

"Damn, I think I could still make money up there, but that's a lot. I'll go seventy-six hundred and that's tops. Any more than that and it could get to be too close."

"I'll write that down and call you back. The other man is near."

Leo said, "I'll bet it's that Wilson boy and his dad. The kid's been looking for something ever since he bought his big one ton. Well, good luck, Mike."

When I closed the phone, the man asked me, "How about seventy-six fifty and I bring you cash in an hour?"

I stuck my hand out for a shake and he waved his boy over. "You bought yourself a camper, Son. I helped you make a deal for seventy-six fifty. Let's go get the money and your truck."

As they left, I told them that I would take the camper off my truck so he could slide under it when he came back.

I shut everything down and dumped the now old coffee. A bunch of people were watching as I set the jack stands up and lifted the camper from the bed. When it was up and stable, I pulled out and parked next to it. Using tools in the truck, I removed the hold down clamps from the side rails. The clamps had a fat rubber bushing between the clamp and the bed, so there wasn't a mark or gouge where the holes were. I would have to fill the holes in with something to keep the bed rails from rusting.

The Wilsons came back with a big blue Ford F-350 dual rear wheel pickup. That was a very expensive truck. I showed them the hold down clamps and the young man instantly went into the back of his extended cab and brought out a battery powered drill and a half inch bit. They used the measurements of my truck as the beds were about the same size to drill the holes. They removed the tailgate and put it in the extended cab. The hardest part of the whole deal was inserting the spread molly with the rubber pad. When that was done, the dad said, "Okay, Jimmy, pay the man and get your title. I think you just saved yourself about three thousand dollars."

The young man counted out seventy-six hundreds and a fifty. I handed him the title and the deal was done. We directed the kid while he backed his truck under the slide in camper, and I showed him how to lower it so he would know how to jack it up, too. With the clamps in place and the jack stands in the camper, they took off after one more handshake.

Mom surprised me, "You are some horse trader, Son. I listened to all of that and you were really straight with that man. I suppose you could buy your family lunch at the Kitchen with all that money in your pocket."

"Hang on; I have to call Leo Toll to tell him I got more than his final bid." Toll was disappointed, but he understood how bad the Wilsons wanted a camper.

I told Mom, "Let's go see how the girls are doing."

Mom said, "They're done. They sold everything they brought in the first hour we were here. A lot of people came to them for more, but they ran out fast. You have some of the most popular ham and bacon around. I think the guy next to them that slices the bacon is making as much as you are. He told me he was getting one of those circular slicers to do a ham like the fancy stores. He figures your hams will pay for it in a couple of months."

After a very early lunch at the Kitchen, we drove home happy to have had a successful day at the market. I didn't want to try for the Pine Ridge market, as I had not pulled any wine for that place, and Raul and Jose were coming by.

I began using the time to work on a few loose screws on barn doors, and to change the oil in the old Ford tractor. The women were using their time in the garden, and I would have to begin cultivating the corn soon. The John Deere may be better for the big fields, but we would see.

A little after noon, a strange car came up the driveway and parked by the other vehicles. I walked over to greet whoever they were. A couple of men got out and introduced themselves, "Mr. Grayson, this is George Dirk, and I'm Sam Green. We work for the Kroger grocery chain. We understand you have planted over forty acres in sweet corn, is that right?"

"I have. The only reason was that the price of the seed was right. I figured my animals would eat sweet corn as easily as any other." Sam Green laughed, "You're right, they would, but I might have a better deal for you. First though, I need to ask, what kind of fertilizer have you put on your land and the corn?"

I must have looked at them funny, as George said, "You know, did you treat the sweet corn seed with something or have you planted it with nitrogen?"

"No, no, I have only used manure on the fields. I figured it was good enough a long time ago, so it ought to be good enough for my little farm."

Sam said to me, "You know an acre of sweet corn should produce between a hundred and a hundred fifty bushels. If the corn is picked at the exact right time, it would be worth about three times what regular field corn is worth. Let us come in and pick your corn for you, and pay you the commodity rate for it at the time. We'll put a minimum price on it for you, but let me assure you that in season, sweet corn is bringing in a good dollar. I'll have the Farm Bureau surveyor come out and check your soil, and if you don't have any foreign substances, I think we can certify your corn as being organic and that will bring you even more money. Would you sell us your corn?"

I was curious, "How did you know I planted sweet corn? Who would have told you?"

"We contacted the man who just sold his place out about the sweet corn seed he had purchased and he told us you were planting it. We have a deal with all of the grain elevators and feed stores around to let us know of anyone purchasing a large quantity of sweet corn seed. That's how we get a lot of our supplies."

I needed some time to think about this a little, but told them, "It sounds like a good deal, but I have to think about it and do a little research. I was planning on having enough feed for my animals for the winter. I don't have a lot of open land, and what I can grow will just about make it for the year. If I have to buy it, I'll have to make sure the prices are good enough to justify not having my own."

George said, "Good idea, and we can have the Farm Bureau surveyor come out. They'll do a free soil test for you and can let you know where any deficiencies are. You probably don't overwork your land, so you are probably in good shape. Here's the information on how we will pick your corn. We do have to have inspectors who will check on the corn every day when it gets close to picking time. We'll come back to see you soon. Do you have a phone?"

We exchanged phone numbers and they left as Raul and Jose came up the driveway. This was the busiest this place had been in years, or maybe ever.

I took the two men inside for coffee and they showed me some very professional looking plans. I liked the way they had planned the house. Raul surprised me when he said, "You've been cutting a lot of oak lately, and I wonder if we could get some of the lumber from the trees for the exterior. If we had half logs, or just the surface, we could make the new exterior look like the original log cabin. We'll do the fireplace in the back by using local rock, and make it a duplicate of the front. I think we should use an insulated vent pipe to make sure there isn't a chance of fire. We can make the apron around the fireplace as big as the one in this room. If we include the heat activated fans like this one, the back of the house should be as warm as the front. If not, you can always add a gas furnace."

These two guys had been building some fancy homes, so they knew all of the neat things people wanted in a home. The place was going to be funny, as the new part of the house was going to be very modern, and the living part will still be roomy and homey the way it is now.

Mom had some questions about the kitchen, wanting to be sure that we would keep the spring house to cool things. It was amazing how, even on the hottest day, the temperature in the rock spring house stayed around forty to forty-five degrees. The water came from the ground about ten feet from the house and flowed through a pipe into the spring house. There was a very heavy water flow that made me wonder how all of that pressure was created.

Jose was the one to talk dollars and cents. "Mike Grayson, the work on the house will take more than a month if we hire some helpers. If we do it by ourselves, it could be over three months. Can you pay for helpers, too? We've asked around and know what a carpenter should get in this area, and know that no one pays Latinos that much. We'll work for a couple of dollars less an hour for non-union carpenters."

I told the two men, "Since we don't have a clue how much this will cost, how about I set up an account with the hardware store and we'll get Ezra to make a deal with the lumber yard for the log facings you want and all of the lumber. They have pine that is cheaper than the oak we cut."

I looked at the two men, "Now, about your wages, I'll pay you what the going rate is that you're comfortable with. You know what's fair and I want to pay fair. I will keep taxes out and pay my half of social security, so you or all of the men working are square with taxes. If you get someone who isn't legal, we'll take him in to see a man about getting legal. I can't take a chance having a problem with immigration."

Raul asked, "When can you set up the account at the hardware store? We'll get a lumber list to get started together and begin working on a foundation. Can a concrete truck get up here? Doing all of the concrete with a little one yard gas mixer will take a long time."

"I don't know, but I do know someone who would. I'll find out."

Jose said, "There is an old frame home being torn down near our place in town. We can get enough lumber for all of the forms we will need. We'll go by and make a deal to help them out and get what we need cheap."

"Well, men, I suppose you can start on Monday. Go get the lumber you need for forms and get me a starting list of lumber. I'll find out about the concrete. I'll put on as many helpers as you need so we can get the house and barn done before winter."