Chapter 43

The two new little ones were sound asleep in bed together. They were in the room next to Mom so that she would hear them if they woke up. Millie and Marita instantly went to sleep, but I was wide awake, thinking about how to raise two kids who had lost their parents.

The major trauma of losing their mom and dad must have passed, but they still had to have those intense feelings of loss. Mom and Millie were so full of love that the two little ones felt it and were comforted.

We now had Rosita sleeping in the room with Karen, but neither seemed to mind. You can't turn someone away who was being pressured by egotistical men who felt that she should succumb to their desires. That she was single made her a target. The men didn't mess with D's girls, and I think they felt that he was not someone to be trifled with. He was considerably stronger in will and mind than the others. Well, Marita will soon be leaving, so that will keep the population of the house at a reasonable level. Karen will be leaving for school, so we'll miss her around the house as well.

I was too restless to just lie in bed, so I got up and went into the big room. There had been a little bit of a chill in the air so I had lit a fire that was now down to embers. I put a log on, knowing that it would probably keep the big room warm for the rest of the night.

Sitting in one of the rockers, I wondered why I didn't have a couple of ghosties sitting with me or appearing in front of me. Maybe they only came to me when I was asleep. The only one who could really give me advice was Dad. He raised us kids and taught all of us to be good people. Frank's and Sissy's kids were growing up to be respectful and fun to be around. I hoped they would enjoy taking care of the garden. I knew they would be excited to begin eating what they helped plant and take care of.

I heard a noise behind me, and turned to see Mom come into the room. She smiled at me as she passed by the sink for a drink of water. She came and sat in a rocker next to me, and said, "Couldn't sleep, huh?"

"Just thinking about Minya and Mato, and what else the strange mountain may have in store for us."

Mom rocked and looked at the fire, "You and Millie have been given a special task to raise those two. I somehow feel that they have found a loving home and feel good here. Millie is such a loving mother to John that the other two felt it and want to share in that love. If you let him, Mato is going to be your shadow. The way he was watching you was in total adoration."

"Mom, I was just thinking that I need to be the father that Dad was to me. He taught me from the time that I was Mato's age on. If he was doing something, he would take time to explain it to me and have me attempt to help him. I'm sure we took twice as long to do many things because I was being his helper, but he was not a yeller nor was he pushy. He patiently taught me how to do things. I hope I can be that way with Mato and John. Just think, Mom, we have another baby coming very soon. I'm not scared, but I sometimes doubt my ability to be the man I need to be."

Mom was smiling, "You sound just like your dad when your brother and sister were still toddlers and you were on the way. He would tell me how his father had taught him about the farm and how to take care of his family. You see how history repeats itself; now you get to pass that down to your little ones."

"Come on, Mom, let's go to bed. There is more and more to do every day, and we need our rest to handle it. I want you to consider when you and D will take your trip. I really do want you to go."

Turning to me, Mom said, "I called your sister and she'll be here in the morning. I also called D and told him to be ready to leave in the morning as we planned. I think we need to do this. D and I need to see if we are compatible. I promise to call every night to see how you're doing. With the girls here, along with your sister and kids, the new ones will be happy and have kids to play with."

That was disturbing. I really didn't think Mom would leave right now, but she seemed to want to find out whether or not D was a keeper. Mom needed someone to keep her warm at night, and D is a good man. If he married all of his girls off, he would be very lonely. Mom would be the right tonic for him. I was hoping they could find some happiness with each other.

I gave Mom a hug, and kissed her on the forehead, as I sent her to bed. I looked in on the two little Indians and saw that they were sleeping peacefully.

Snuggling up to Millie's back, and holding her swelling tummy as I drifted off, probably had me smiling in my sleep.

Witch was licking my face. That was unusual for her, as it usually was Spook who woke me with a cold nose. I reached out to give her an ear scratch, but she shook her head and backed away looking toward the door of the bedroom. Thinking she really needed to go out badly, I got out of bed and followed the two dogs out of the bedroom.

Instead of turning toward the big room, Witch turned toward the other bedrooms. The sun wasn't up yet, but a nightlight by the bed where Minya and Mato were, lit up the area enough for me to see two little ones sitting up. They didn't appear afraid, and were quietly talking with each other.

Witch went to the bed and put her front feet up on the bed, sticking her head toward the two kids. Minya giggled and reached out to touch the giant dog. Witch gave the tentative hand a lick, then nosed Mato who was staring in surprise at the huge dog.

Minya looked up at me; "You have big dogs. We couldn't have a dog because we moved a lot. Can these dogs be ours, too?"

I smiled as I answered, "Of course. This one is Witch, and the one wanting some petting is Spook. They are really very gentle."

Mato said, "I need to go to the bathroom."

I stuck out my hand, "Come with me and I'll show you where the bathroom is. You have one right here attached to your room, so it is easy to get to."

Minya watched closely as I led Mato to the bathroom. He knew what to do, so I only watched to make sure he hit the toilet and properly shook off when he was done. When he pulled his pajamas up, I pointed to the sink. He was smart enough to put the toilet seat down and stand on it to wash his hands. I pulled a hand towel down for him as he finished.

We walked back into the bedroom and were met by Minya, who immediately went into the bathroom. She turned and looked at me before almost completely closing the door, but she left it open a little.

Mato was looking at the two dogs that were sitting beside each other, observing the two kids. I wasn't sure what time it was, but I felt it was probably time for the house to wake up.

That question was answered as Marita came into the bedroom and gave Mato a hug. Minya came from the bathroom and received a hug as well. Marita said to the kids, "Let's get your clothes on as the morning chores are going to be getting done. Maybe Mike will show you the cows being milked."

Marita told me, "Go put some coffee on while I help them dress."

I didn't have to put coffee on as Mom was sitting at the little table with a fresh cup. I saw a suitcase by the door and she saw me looking at it. "D will be here any minute. I'm going to go say goodbye to Millie and John. I let the dogs out earlier, and they may have woken up your little Indians. The two of them are really interested in the kids."

Mom went to the back bedroom where, in all likelihood, Millie was feeding John his early breakfast.

Marita came into the big room with the two kids. She told me, "You stay in with your Mom for right now; I'll take Minya and Mato to meet our dairy people."

Karen came bouncing into the big room and gave hugs to the two little ones. "How are you two this morning? Did you sleep well?"

Minya nodded, "The big dogs woke us up. I could hear their toenails on the floor. They were walking all around us, and I think they wanted us to get up."

The door opened and D walked in, followed by his six girls. He was all smiles as he shook my hand. The six girls all gave hugs to the two little ones.

D shook my hand and assured me he would take care of Mom on the trip. "You know, Mike, this will be the fulfillment of a desire to see something that I've had since I was a little kid. In school, we always mentioned Puget Sound in geography, and I could name the islands scattered throughout the area. I'm really excited."

Mom came back and smiled at everyone. "You folks enjoy yourselves and take care of each other while I'm gone. I'll give you a call most evenings." She gave me one last hug, along with the two little ones who were waiting to go out to watch the milking. D scooped her bag up and they were gone.

While the girls began fooling around in the kitchen, I went to the bedroom to dress. I did a quick shave and shower, noting it was getting to be time for a haircut again. As I finished dressing, Millie had finished giving John some time at her breast. She said, "He's still hungry, but he always likes to nurse a little first thing in the morning. I like it too, as it makes me feel like a real mommy. This little one inside me is really moving around lately. Somehow, I don't think he's going to wait for his whole time to be born."

I took John from her and gave her a hand to get up. John instantly began squirming and was looking down at the floor. He grunted a couple of times, but Millie said, "John, you know the word. What do you want?"

John stopped squirming and looked right at Millie, screwed his mouth up, and very distinctly said, "Down."

Millie gave him a kiss, then pointed at me and told him, "You need to ask your dad to get down."

John looked up at me with a big smile, and repeated his one word request, "Down."

As soon as I put him down, he very quickly walked toward the big room. After walking all around the big room, he went back down the hallway to the back bedrooms. He came out a minute later and sat on the floor with the dogs. He looked up at me, and you could tell it was a question as he said, "Min, Min, Min." He was still looking around, working his mouth to try and say "Ma, oh, Ma, oh."

Millie said, "Listen to him, Mike. Our son is talking. He's asking where Minya and Mato are. Where are they?"

"Marita took them out to see the cows being milked." After advising her of that, I asked her if she knew when Sissy was going to be here and if we should wait breakfast for them.

Millie said, "They probably won't be here before noon, so we'll get breakfast ready for when the rest of the girls from below, and Esteban and his family get done." She turned to me and asked, "Will you light a fire in the stove in the summer kitchen? I think we'll need it for more biscuits."

I was a pro at pulling the ashes from the stove and getting a fire going. I stoked the stove heavily, so that it would heat up quickly. From there, I went back to the big room and put my boots on to go tend to the smokehouses. Marita came in with Minya and Mato excitedly talking about seeing the cows being milked, and looking at the chickens, ducks, turkeys, and geese. They thought the guinea hens were funny looking.

The smokehouses don't take a lot of time. All I had to do was to empty the ash trays from beneath the fire grill and make sure the stokers were full. I didn't have to start the chipper since I already had a big enough pile of chips. I made a pass through the rooms to put honey on the meat that was to be treated, then headed toward the barn.

The guineas began making noise, so I turned to watch down the lane. The women from below were coming, but Sissy's Expedition was right behind them. She was really early. She was barely stopped before kids almost flew from the car, ran over to say hi to me, before running to Carmen, Anita, and Carla for hugs. Sissy gave me a hug before Shirley gave me one as well. Shirley whispered to me, "I get embarrassed for the stunt I pulled every time I see you. I promise not to do that ever again. You are a good guy to not have taken advantage of that."

I gave her a kiss on the cheek, and a pat on the bottom, to send her to the house. After pulling their two suitcases from the car, I hauled them into the house and into the rooms Mom had built for the two families. The kids were going to have to figure out how to use the two rooms between the six of them in total now. My thought was to store the double beds and get some bunk beds. If we put two sets of bunk beds in each room, we would even have an extra bed for another kid of either sex to visit. I thought I would bring that up with the women. That would give them something to do if it was going to rain.

Back in the big room, people were gathering at the tables. This is a really nutty place because of all of the people. There were sufficient women there to get the food on the table, but they didn't have Mom to act as a traffic cop. Sissy jumped in and was doing a good job of directing. I could see Millie watching and listening so that she could take over giving directions when she needed to be in charge.

I was sitting next to Esteban, and asked him, "How about coming with me to talk to some of the farmers in town this morning? I'll check the internet for market prices of Jersey cows at the local auction house before we go. There is an auction this afternoon, so we could pick up a few more cows right away, if you want?"

Esteban was excited, "That would be great to do. I think we could handle about ten more if we don't have milking equipment. If you were to build the milk house large enough for both the pasteurization equipment and a bulk tank, we could work out putting milking equipment in for as many cows as you want. We can still keep back some milk from pasteurization to make raw milk cheese for the gourmet trade, but we have to be really careful handling and testing that to avoid the bacteria that are killed by pasteurization, like tuberculosis. We vaccinate for tuberculosis in Mexico, but it's not done here, so no one has any immunity to it."

"We'll check on some milking equipment, too. The farm made good money last year, so we have some capital to play with. The pasteurization equipment didn't cost anything except labor to get it, and the extension of the building isn't going to be much. Raul is supposed to stop by this morning to go over the final plans with you. He should be here any minute. He loves our biscuits."

We had just had our coffee warmed up when Raul and Pedro came in. The two men sniffed the air for the telltale fragrance of fresh baked biscuits. As soon as they had their boots off, they were handed coffee.

Raul unrolled a blueprint and showed Esteban what he figured. The plan looked huge compared to what I had thought. Raul pointed at the drawing, and said, "This is what I figured. Knowing Mike, I planned to make his milk house area the same size as George's. It would be difficult to make a milking parlor area as large as his, but we can expand the area where you milk cows now and raise that area so that you can have five cows in stanchions being milked at the same time. I measured how George had his and how all of the steel and bars were arranged. Each stanchion will have a grain feeder for the cows to munch on while being milked. This should be a first class dairy operation when we get it built."

I was shocked at the size of this thing. Looking at Esteban and Raul I asked, "Are we really going to have that big of an operation? Is something like this necessary for less than ten cows?"

Esteban was about to shake his head 'no', but stopped and said, "Actually, Mike, it is necessary. If we were to let our herd grow just through our own stock, we could be milking twenty cows within five years. From there our growth would be faster and it would depend on how large we wanted the herd to be. This will decrease the time it requires to milk the cows and we could become certified as a graded milking operation. You will still be able to make all of the butter and separate all of the cream you need, but you would be able to increase your income in order to afford the hay you're going to require for your beef stock, as well as the dairy stock. You have the grain part taken care of, so now we need to work on paying for the hay. Also, the more we feed with grass and hay instead of grain, the less need we will have of antibiotics for the animals, since most of their health problems are aggravated by grain feeding."

I sat back in my chair, and looked at the drawing while sipping my coffee. Looking at Raul and Pedro, I asked, "This is a big job. How long will it take to do all of this?"

Raul winked at me and said, "The stanchions could be here by next week. Esteban can order the lines and equipment for the bulk system, and we should be able to finish this in ten days. This will give us another set of pictures to put in our bragging book so we can sell other dairy farmers on our work. We can do this." Raul winked once again, and said, "And it won't be near the amount of money you think it will be. We're bringing the smaller bulk tank from George's place, so you won't have to pay for one of those. He's happy to have it out of there when the new one goes in. Even if we replace all the refrigeration equipment, you will still be way ahead."

I shrugged, "Okay, do it. Come on, Esteban; let's go find some cows."

While I checked for sales and auctions in the area and in Lexington on the internet, I called Maude to get an idea of how much money I could spend for the barn addition and cows. Her comment was, "You couldn't get enough cows to hurt your pocket. You haven't spent your money from last year's crops and your wine money is really piling up. Your firewood guys are shipping a hell of a lot of wood, and the cost of that fence you're putting in isn't close to what I thought it would be, Mike. Those guys are cutting you a decent deal so they have work for their guys, just like you do. You need to keep them in mind when you begin your developments."

I needed to tell Maude how much this could be so I told her, "This can be around ten to twelve thousand for ten cows, Maude. Good milking Jerseys are expensive."

Maude giggled, "Just keep your purchase under two hundred cows and you'll be fine. You know the butcher is sending me a fat check every week for the business you're doing with him, and the Kitchen is like a broken slot machine. It's paying out very well. Go ahead, make my day and make me busier."

I knew there was no way the farm could be in that good of shape, but we didn't have to buy seed for the garden and the sweet corn. I was planting everything possible in sweet corn because Kroger wanted more and more. I didn't think I could work a garden much bigger than what we already had, but I suppose we would see.

There was an auction at the sale barn on the other side of Stanton, on the way to Lexington, and another later today in Lexington. I advised Esteban, "Tell your family that you may not be back in time for evening chores. I'll tell Sissy to help out with the milking and chores if they need her. Let's get up to the sale barn to see if they have anything for us there."

The conversation during the drive to the sale barn was full of Esteban describing how to milk a large volume of cows. He said he knew that Jerseys would produce a very high butterfat content, but he had always owned and milked Holstein cows.

There were several stock trailers parked near the auction pens waiting to be checked in. We were going to walk into the office area to see what they had, but I stopped and looked in one of the trailers. There were three trailers full of Jerseys. I couldn't tell how many were fresh and how many were dry, but that many animals had me looking around to see if anyone could satisfy my curiosity. There was an old man sitting on the top rail of the fence near the lead truck, so I asked him, "Do you know who I could ask to find out about these Jerseys?"