Chapter 15

Sunday morning should be a morning when people get to sleep a little later than other days. Not on a farm. The cow or cows still have to be milked, eggs laid overnight have to be gathered, and the other animals have to be fed. At my house, that includes the dogs. They had been staying out at night since they enjoy chasing the deer from the garden and patrolling around the chicken yard fence where critters look for a way inside to have chicken dinner.

The two dogs are always so excited when they see me or anyone who exits the house that you take a chance of being mauled. Both of them are so big that when you sit on the steps of the porch they can look you right in the eye, maybe even a little down on you. The female looked like she was going to have her puppies any day now, but I haven't noticed her making a bed yet. Millie had set a big box on the porch with some feed sacks in it to give her a special place, but she was ignoring it so far.

With the chores done and breakfast finished, we dressed for church. There were some last minute things to do for the dinner the ladies were going to serve later, but we were able to leave for church in Mom's car. We stopped by Ben's to pick him up and were a big extended family on the way to town.

Sunday school was interesting, as my extended family now included Ezra sitting with us, plus Maude had come early and sat on the other side of me, with Summer sitting next to her. Mom and Millie were now soul mates and always sat together. I'm sure our gathering was cause for some conversation, but who could gossip about people just being friends?

After church, we had a procession going back to the house, with Harold and Martha in their pickup truck, and Maude in her big Ford Expedition. We had a great dinner of hickory slow cooked top sirloin roast with all of the trimmings. I think Mom was the happiest person at the table. Since she had been here, she had glowed in the outdoor activity and the companionship she had with Millie and Summer. Although Summer was turning twenty, Mom treated her as one of her kids. Summer liked it as well.

After dinner, I led Harold and Maude on a tour of the front vineyard and orchard, then around to the back side to see the old vineyard and small orchard that I was restoring. Maude had changed into jeans and boots to do some walking, and actually wanted to go down to see the old Jorgenson homestead. I discouraged the trek, as Harold was still in his dress clothes and shoes.

Back at the house, Maude wanted to talk about the road commissioner project. "Mike, from what I know, your first order of business is to buy out the equipment Ralph has and rebuild all of it. He's going to split most of the repairs with you, so get all of it into the best condition you can. That shouldn't take all that long, and then you can begin going over all of the secondary roads in the county. You should be able to get Jimmy some help by then, plus you're going to need a bulldozer operator for your timber and path clearing. You will be too busy looking at roads and directing people to do all of the work required to try to do it by yourself."

"You see, Maude," I began trying to explain what I wanted; "I really want to work on my place by doing the field work, keeping up with the farm and garden. I feel like I'm letting some of my personal work go. That's why I was hesitating about the road job so much."

"Be smart, Mike. You know how to direct and give orders. See what needs to be done and direct those that will be doing it. Ezra knows what to do and can keep an equipment operator going in the right direction. Jimmy will keep you on track with the help of the men he's going to bring in. Now you need to think about some help here on the farm. From what your mom says, you are going to have a huge grape crop. From the looks of your garden, you are going to have enough vegetables to feed the county. You're also going to need a lot of help between the garden, vineyards, and orchards. Think about some of the Latino women to see if they might want to work some. You could easily keep the garden up with their help, and when it comes time to harvest, you're going to need the help anyway. My goodness, Mike; what were you thinking when you planted a five acre garden?"

"I'll ask the women to see what they think. I know the orchards need some landscaping between the trees, and the back vineyards need weeding. I'll need to look after that. That's why I need to be around here and not working for everyone else."

Maude told me, "Call Jimmy and tell him about fixing equipment first. I'll call Ralph from home and give you both the number the equipment is worth. I'll have Benson draw up an agreement for you to assume the road commissioner's job and buy the equipment. You be ready to come to town to sign and give Ralph some money. He'll be ecstatic. That concrete plant has been expensive to get built but that's all he's thinking about right now."

Maude took off to go and put the rest of the road deal together. I thought for a moment, then went to the bedroom and brought down the little box with all of the money in it. I kept thinking that I needed this for the road job, but I also felt like the money should be used for helping the community out.

I took Harold outside and sat at the picnic table. "Harold, when I bought my truck, the camper I had came with it. It was sort of an unexpected bonus. Inside the camper was this little box that I put aside and didn't open until I was getting the camper ready to sell. I found money when I opened it, a lot of money. I was going to give the money back to the lady who sold me the truck, but she has passed away. Harold, this isn't mine, so I want it to do some good in the community. I know the butcher and I already help out with food for a lot of families in need, but I'm sure there are other needs. How about using this money to help those families who need it?"

I opened the box, took out the three stacks of hundred dollar bills and a smaller pile that was unmarked. Harold picked one stack up and flipped through it like a bank teller, then put the stack down. "Mike, it is unbelievably generous of you to offer this. The church will use some for those in need, but we're doing well with our donations right now. I'm thinking your new jobs are going to require a lot of operating capital, and you may need this. Your hiring so many is going to help the community more than the donations."

Harold was sitting, staring at the stacks of bills, "The church will use one of these stacks to do its work, and you will use the rest to help the community by hiring more people. There are a couple of men who are recovering alcoholics and will work now. If I can send them to you, use them to do whatever you need, but make them work hard for their money. They need the satisfaction of hard work and the thrill of getting paid fairly for a fair day's labor. What do you think? Will that work?"

"Harold, there's a lot of money there. I don't know if I should really be entitled to so much, whether or not it will hire others. I will benefit from those that I hire, so it's like the money is coming back to me anyway."

"Oh, Mike, don't be silly. You and I both know it takes a lot of money to begin an operation like the road job. It's going to take a lot of cash to keep your timber business going, and just look at how many men you have working there now. I'm sure your bill with Benson is enough to choke over the way he's working on all of those men with bad credentials. Take the money, Mike, use it, make people happy."

I have really had to argue with my conscience sometimes, and this was one of those times. Harold saw my indecision and said, "I heard Maude suggest you hire a bunch of the Latino women to help on the farm. That would be a good idea, as those families are just barely making ends meet. What you pay is keeping them afloat and feeding them. If they were to work out here, you could give them some of your produce, too. Hire the rest of that group and keep them in food and clothes. The guy who is renting to them is raping them on rent, and I'm sure he reminds them every month that they are subject to the INS if he wants to turn them in. Help get them out of that, Mike, help them to become independent."

I was smiling at Harold when he said, "Besides, we have about twenty new church members who barely speak English, but come to pray with us on Sundays. You see, good deeds make other good things happen."

"Harold, go put this in your car and deposit it tomorrow. I'll put the rest in the bank as if it was from the trees I've been selling. You get those men who want to work in touch with me and I'll have them working right away. I'll talk to my ladies to see what they think about the Latino women."

We shook hands and Harold took a big stack of bills to his car. I still didn't know how much there was. I took the box inside the house, and then went back out to call Jimmy.

"Hey, Jimmy, Mike here; I'm going to finish the deal with Ralph in the morning and I'm told the best thing for you to do is to begin getting the equipment in as perfect a condition as you can. Do you need a good mechanic?"

"I'm a pretty good wrench, Mike," Jimmy bragged. "I've been working on equipment all of my life. You know my Dad was a heavy equipment operator on the highways for years. I was sort of his apprentice. I would still be working for him if he hadn't sold all of his equipment. I could use a good hand, though. One of my buddies from Cincinnati is on the way down here now. If I can put him to work in the morning, we'll begin getting the big equipment ready."

"Jimmy, I need someone else while we're looking. I need someone to take over clearing the cable paths with the bulldozer for me. I should check the entire county for road problems, figure out what needs to be done, and set some kind of schedule and priorities. Do you know of someone I might be able to get?"

"Darn, Mike, I forgot to ask. I have another guy who got out about three months ago who is an artist with a bulldozer. I've seen the man fit an eight foot bucket blade through a six foot hole. I'm telling you, he is really good. He's a good worker, but people dismiss his abilities when they talk to him. The guy stutters so bad that it takes him five minutes to say good morning. If you just tell him what you need done, he'll do it. He writes a note when he needs something. He knows his stuttering is a hindrance, but works around it. Do you think you might be interested?"

"I'm interested, Jimmy, what's the guy's name and when can he come?"

"His name's Jet Peters. I really don't know what his real first name is, because even the NCOs called him Jet. That might be his name, who knows. I'll get in touch with him and he'll be here in the morning. My place is going to be full with all these guys coming. It's going to be a party."

"Where does this guy have to come from, Jimmy?"

"Lexington, if I call him right now, he'll be here about the same time as my bud from Cincinnati. Let me call him right now. The guy is going to be so excited he won't be able to say, tha, tha, tha, thank you. Ha, ha, ha, sorry about that, but I couldn't resist."

Now I needed to talk to Maude again. When she answered, I asked, "How are you doing with your figures, Maude?"

"They're done and I'm getting ready to entertain my engineer friend in an hour. He's already called and told me to have everything off but the stereo and have it down low, as he's ready for some play time."

"That's neat, Maude. Have a good time. Along with consummating this deal with Ralph, I'm putting a couple of guys on tomorrow that Jimmy has found. One will work with Jimmy on putting the equipment in shape, and the other is going to be working with Ezra. I'll need you to make sure they have all of their forms signed for us."

Maude's voice took on a more serious tone, "Mike, I hate to tell you this, but you need to see Blake Noonan about insurance. You need to insure all of your equipment, and you need to get workman's comp insurance. Since Benson is working on all of your immigration problems, all of those men are going to have to be covered, as well. Blake knows what to buy and how to buy it. I'll set an appointment up with him for you, and you can take care of that."

"Oh shit," I impulsively said. "Sorry, Maude, I didn't mean to cuss."

"Something like fuck buddy?"

"I suppose, but I really didn't think about the other things involved in having employees. Okay, set up an appointment and I'll work around it. Thanks for giving me a heads up so I don't run into roadblocks on the way to the poor house."

"You're doing great, Mike. I think you'll do fine with the roads. You know how to get men to work, so you'll do a good job. Give it a year and see. I doubt anyone will even want to run against you in the election. The other road commissioners will be out there campaigning for you."

"Enjoy your engineer, Maude."

"I will, Honey, I'll be thinking of what you missed. Ha, ha, ha."

Millie and Martha came out of the house carrying coffee mugs. Martha said, "We thought you two might want some coffee while talking about all of your big plans."

Harold waved his hand around, "I've been eavesdropping on Mike's calls as he finds people for tomorrow and talks to his accountant or bookkeeper. He's a really good businessman."

Millie sat next to me, "He's a good husband too. He takes care of Mom, Summer, and Ben, as well as our home. I'm so lucky."

Martha patted Millie on the back of her hand, "Don't be giving your man a big head. He'll forget how to act and won't get anything done."

That just gave me another good arm hug.

"Well, Mike," Harold began, as he started to stand, "It's been fun today and we had a great meal. It's time to get home for evening chores. Call me this week to see what we can do to put some of the things we discussed into action. I'll be busy on the farm this week, but I will still have time to work with you on what we talked about."

We walked them to their car and watched them drive away. We went inside so I could change clothes to do evening chores. Ben was snoring while leaning back in his chair in front of the fireplace and TV. There was still a spicy odor of hickory in the air, although the fire was out at the time. Now that the spring was bringing warmer air, the stove gave us about as much heat as necessary. Perhaps a little fire in the morning, but that is all that was needed up on Mystery Mountain.

After chores, we woke Ben so he could have a light supper with us before going home. He was a happy man having a place to be with people every day. His health seemed to improve with each day he spent with us.

After Ben went home that evening, and the women were in their rockers watching TV, I put a list together of what I had to do in the morning. I knew I probably shouldn't, but I called Jimmy to find out about Jet Peters.

"He got in an hour ago, Mike. He's so excited that he won't be able to talk for a week. Where do you want him in the morning? Is the bulldozer still at the cable distribution building?"

"Good thinking, Jimmy; if you can give him directions to get there around seven, Ezra and I will meet him to get him started. From there, I'll go do the deal with Ralph, then swing by to see you and meet your bud. You're going to have to tell me what kind of account you'll need for parts and supplies so I can set them up."

"We'll do that when you finish with Ralph tomorrow. Bring the forms you need for us to be your employees. It's a W-4 or something like that."

"I have Maude, the bookkeeper, getting that together for me. We'll take care of it."

Jimmy's voice dropped a little lower, "I've told the two guys their hourly wage. It's a dollar less than mine since I'm going to be acting as the foreman. They're OK with that, so we're good to go on wages. I'm excited to work for you, Mike."

Little did Jimmy know, but unless it was something special, Jet was going to be busy working on cable paths for the next year.

I called Ezra to tell him about the new man. When I tried to explain about Jet's stuttering, Ezra commented, "We have a couple of men who stutter pretty bad around here. Since they're farmers, it doesn't make a lot of difference, except they don't come to market to trade. If they realized no one really minded, I'd bet they would feel a lot better. I'm looking forward to working with the boy, Mike. See you in the morning."

After getting up early, doing chores, and having some breakfast, I was at the distribution center at six thirty. I was having a cup of coffee from my thermos, when a big black pickup parked next to my yellow-orange one. A fairly short guy came bouncing out of the truck with a smile so big it lit up the morning.

The man walked up to me, stuck his hand out, and with a confident smile said, "Jet, Pa, Pa, Pa, Pa, Peters."

"Great to meet you, Jet. Jimmy said you were the best there is on a bulldozer. Let me show you what I have." We walked over to the bulldozer next to the truck and trailer that hauls it. I pulled the big grease insertion tool off the trailer and carried it to the tractor.

"Look it over and I'll go over what has to be done each day."

Instead of walking around the tractor, he was up on the tractor, checking the fuel level, pulling the dipstick out, and checking the hydraulic fluid level. He went over all of the hydraulic lines for the bucket and checked all of the swivel joints before checking over the tracks very carefully. He was nodding his approval as I plugged the big greasing tool onto the first Zerk grease fitting. I didn't have a chance to begin turning the crank since Jet was already there. We went through all of the grease points and stood back looking at the bulldozer. I told Jet, "Go ahead, start it and I'll show you where we will be heading."

While the young man went through the steps to start the big diesel engine, I got the GPS, compass, spray paint cans, and the map from the truck. When I came back to the bulldozer, Jet had raised the bucket and turned the tractor to face the direction opposite of where the other path entrance came in to the distribution center. The kid could think.

He let the tractor idle and got out of the cab to talk to me and to meet Ezra, who had come up at that point. After they met, I told both of them, "First, mark your path and follow these points for turns to get around bluffs and rivers. Ezra will go with you to show you what trees we will want. If you can push them over, do it. If they won't go down without straining the tractor, leave them for the men to cut and we'll blow the stumps. Jet, listen to Ezra, and when you have a question, ask him. He's patient and doesn't have a problem when you have trouble getting something out. I'll be back about noon to see how you're doing. I'll make sure the women bring food for lunch today."

Ezra and Jet began walking down the path they were going to take with Ezra blazing each of the trees as he went. I noted he was following a path with the most black walnut trees to bring in that much more money.

I called Maude on the way to town to see where I needed to go. She said, "Come by and pick me up on the way to Benson's. Ralph is going to meet us there. I hope you brought a company check. When we're finished, we'll go out and sign up Jimmy and the other new man, then go over to sign up the guy you hired to work with Ezra. When we get back, we'll have lunch with Blake Noonan so you can give him the go ahead to cover you to get started. He'll put a binder on everything. I'll have an employee list for him for the two different companies."

As I drove, I called Millie to make sure they were going to feed lunch to the men. I told her where to go to meet them and what I had planned.

Maude was in a good mood, dressed in a conservative skirt, blouse, and sweater. She looked like the typical accountant. At Benson's, Ralph was being crazed over getting rid of the road commissioner responsibility. I can't imagine that it caused him that much trouble. He told us, "The big deal is that I'm a county commissioner, and I couldn't hardly be derelict in my duties as a road commissioner. I just couldn't do it all. I know it's my fault for biting off more than I can chew, but I didn't think I would go into the concrete business this fast. I really appreciate this, Mike, and the county is really happy you'll try to help us. Hopefully you can make this work for you so you will continue."

We signed, I paid, and a happy Ralph bounced out of Benson's office. Benson had me sign a couple sets of corporate papers for the timber and the road businesses. He told me, "I haven't made up my mind whether or not you'll really be in the construction business. If you end up contracting for more than just your place, we might, but right now, there's no reason. Just pay those guys what they need to pay their own taxes right now. I'll let you know."