Chapter 46

I walked inside the cabin and sat at the bench to take off my boots. Several expectant heads turned my way. Fred Jones, the Kentucky Wild Life agent said, "Howdy, Mike. I haven't heard from you yet this spring, so I thought I'd come out and check to see if you have any bears nearby."

He paused for a second, "I brought this other guy along with me and told him that you were a good farmer with orchards and vineyards. He wanted to meet you. Shake hands with Barton Mench."

I shook hands with Barton as he said, "The local Farm Bureau tells me that you are a hundred percent organic up here. Your farm will make a good case study. I hope you'll help us get a white paper together on how to develop an organic farm so we can help others get in on the craze. You would be a great speaker if we could get a symposium together."

I smiled through a frown and turned to the Kroger guys saying, "Hey, George, Sam, good to see you. Hope you introduced yourself to the others."

Looking at the nearest big table, the leader of the cable crew stood and said, "Mike, if we can have a quick word, we'll get out of your hair."

When I joined the four fiber men, the leader said, "If you have a way to advance us equipment money, we can get started right away. We have enough for living expenses, but we can't front the equipment and materials."

As I wrote on a page from my notebook, I smiled and told them, "Call Maude at this number. She's expecting you to call and will make arrangements for all of the materials and equipment to be paid for as you need it. If you need heavy equipment, call Jimmy. I'll write his number down, too. Sorry it took me so long to get back home today, but I was talking to Maude to get you guys set up. Keep in mind that I want one of the turbines for this farm and two for the dairy farm. If the mountain turbines can support the buildings down here, that's fine, but go get 'er done."

The cable crew leader, whose name was Kris, asked, "Can we use one of those carts to run back and forth with? That would save us from renting one."

"No problem, use what I have, but take care of them and keep up on the maintenance."

The four got up and left. Millie was watching them, almost disappointed that they weren't staying for lunch.

Karen said she was going to call the others in from the garden for lunch now, so she put her shoes on, and left.

Millie brought me a cup of coffee as I finally sat down, putting her new license plates on the table. Being men, we had to talk about cars and trucks for a couple of minutes, before I had to ask, "Are you four guys here at the same time for a purpose, or is this a coincidence?"

George looked at me and said, "Both, Mike. I heard you just bought a farm across the way. Do you know what kind of place it is, and how much and what kind of fertilizer he was using?"

I truthfully answered, "You know, I really don't. I need to go over and check the fields out to see if they are all planted and if he has treated them. If he has treated the hay fields, I'll sell that hay and buy organic. I can get all of the organic grain I need, but I'd like to be growing my own for my beef stock."

Sam said, "If you can bring that place up to organic standards, Kroger is interested in the milk you will produce. We'll pay twenty-five percent over grade A premium, and include free shipping as well as flushing your bulk tank after each pickup."

"Holy smokes, Guys. Maybe I need to get rid of the pasteurization equipment I just received."

Sam sat forward, "You're going to pasteurize your milk, too? Our dairy will buy your pasteurized milk and pay you a fee per hundredweight. That saves an entire step for us. Do you know how much milk you'll be producing?"

I scratched my head before saying, "Esteban would tell you exactly, but we're milking right at forty head right now, and most Jerseys will easily produce forty pounds a day, so that would be a minimum of sixteen hundred pounds a day."

George and Sam nodded before Sam asked, "Are you going to expand that operation?"

"I might buy more cows, but I'd rather build the herd with new bulls every couple of years. The herd will hopefully grow naturally. I doubt that I want to be milking more than a hundred head. With the prices you're giving me, I might be able to be a semi-successful dairy farmer. You guys know that the industry isn't working out for most dairy men right now."

George said, "Well, Mike, we want your milk as soon as we can get it. What are you doing with it now?"

"We're making as much butter, and buttermilk as we can sell, and taking the rest up to the dairy in Mount Sterling. We shipped fourteen ten-gallon cans this morning, so we're shipping about 1200 pounds a day and feeding the hogs a hell of a lot of skim milk."

Sam stood up and went to the end of the dinning area with his cell phone. He had a long conversation, and then came back. When he sat down, Sam offered, "We'll give you market price for raw milk, and come to get it from you daily. We'll bring clean cans to replace what you ship."

I told him, "I know milk is not bringing any money right now, but we're getting a decent price from Mount Sterling. You're going to have to be close to their numbers so that it's profitable to continue milking. A friend of mine is milking several hundred head. He's shipping to Mount Sterling because they are paying better than Lexington, or even Cincinnati."

George offered, "For organic milk, we'll pay fifteen percent above market or Mount Sterling prices, and twenty-five percent over when you can ship pasteurized bulk. Good enough?"

I nodded, "That will work. It is kind of a nutty time to get into the dairy business, but it is just happening and there are families that will depend on what we do."

Sam was busily writing the terms of our agreement down, then he signed it and handed it to me. We shook hands.

Millie was trying to get my attention, so I smiled at her before she told everyone, "The big table is set for lunch for everyone. Go wash your hands and get ready."

I told the four men, "We've been told; let's eat."

All of the women and kids that had been in the garden came through the door with clean hands. They had stopped to wash up at the barn. After taking their shoes off, everyone found a chair. Today was some homemade lentil soup and ham sandwiches. Everything tasted great, as always.

We had just begun to eat when Bert walked in the door. "Oh boy, just in time for lunch. I left the men with a bunch of sandwiches and knew you'd have something good, so I came right over."

As Bert took his shoes off, George spoke up, "What brings you over here, Bert?"

"Mike here bought my herd after my barn fire, and I've just sold him my farm."

George held his head up with an interest at what he heard. He looked at me and said, "That's the farm you bought? That's where the cows you're milking now came from?"

I nodded without saying anything. George and Sam looked at each other and smiled before George said, "Bert's been an organic farmer for nearly fifteen years. Everything on his place is perfect for what we want. Shoot, Mike, we might talk you into a bigger truck farm down there than what you have here."

Sam said to Bert, "How did you meet up with Mike. Did you find him or did he find you?"

Bert told the story of our meeting at the auction yard and how we quickly put a deal together if I would guarantee that the cows would be milked that day.

George said, "It only makes sense that you two would get together. We've been buying Bert's milk for as long as we've been marketing organic milk." He turned to Bert saying, "We just made a deal with Mike to come for his milk in cans until he gets your place up and running."

"That's good to hear, George. Mike is fair to deal with, but he's no dummy when it comes to what he has to get to make ends meet. He's sort of adopted me, and I willingly come to him and his family. They are really special. I think I've even adopted me some grandkids, too."

Bert turned to me and said, "Your men were getting ready to pour concrete when I left. There are four concrete trucks lined up over there, along with a truck loaded with a septic tank and a bunch of field pipe. That Raul doesn't mess around, does he? He has men running everywhere to get things done."

Fred Jones, the Wildlife Agent, asked Bert, "How is your bear population over there this year. I know you had some trouble about four years ago."

Bert said, "I think most of the bear have gone back to the valley or up into the other mountains. I haven't seen any at all this year. How about you, Mike?"

"I saw one down in the blackberry patch by the road, but that was the only bear, and I only saw him once. He might have moved off now that I fenced the orchards and vineyards in."

Fred said, "I remember you calling and asking about the type of fence you would need. I'll be interested to know how it works out. A big old eight hundred pound bear could just push up against a fence like that and tear it down, so unless it's a braced fence, it may be more for looks than a way to keep big critters out."

Burton, the State Agriculture man said, "You're the one who asked the Farm Bureau about grazing animals within an orchard, aren't you? Did you get them separated?"

"We just did, Burton. I created a decent pasture that has several small meadows on the other side of the orchard up here. The stock looks good in the new area so far. I'm going to go through the orchards and shovel the manure to make sure I don't have a problem. It's good that I found out about a potential problem before it happened."

When lunch was finished, George and Sam said they had to hit the road but would be back within a month to check on our produce. They assured me that a milk pickup would be made daily beginning in the morning.

Burton and George wanted to check the fences on the orchards and vineyards out, so we walked out to the equipment cave and took a four-passenger cart around the big vineyard and orchard to where the stock now grazed. The beef stock was scattered around, but the dry dairy stock and bulls were grouped fairly close. They were probably still getting used to their new surroundings. I didn't see any need to wander around the pasture, so we went back via through the orchard looking at blooms and the heavy buzzing of bees. Burton even commented on how many bees the orchard and vineyard attracted and how that would be good for our garden.

I drove by where the hives were stacked, and pointed. He nodded in understanding.

We went around to the other side of the mountain and down the road to the lower orchard and vineyard. D's girls were all working in that vineyard and waved as we rode up. Burton looked at the fence and the condition of the orchard before saying, "This is an old orchard that you're rejuvenating. I like what you're doing and look forward to see how big you will make this. You will become a big producer if you continue to expand." He liked the vineyard too but wasn't that interested in it, as it didn't mean a big cash crop to him. I made a pass toward the bottom of the hill and what do you know. There was a big black furry critter asleep in my big blackberry patch.

"Well, Mike," Fred said, "I guess you'll be supplying meat again this year."

I told him, "I'm going to attempt to spook him back to the valley. He or she may be alone here. I'd bet it's a he and he's roaming trying to find a mate."

As we drove back up the hill, I stopped to tell the girls about the bear. One of the girls pointed at a Winchester 30-30 leaning against the end of the vine row. She said, "Mom told us not to come to this side of the mountain unless we brought that with us. She even showed us how to shoot it. I hope we don't have to."

Fred knew a little of the girls' history and chuckled, as he knew they were very self-sufficient and all knew how to take care of themselves.

Back up at the house, the two men decided to head back to town, so I said goodbye and watched them leave. That's when I saw the old Ford tractor moving up the rows with the cultivator on it. I know I didn't flip the big rear tires, and I doubted Sissy could do it. When my sis got back to this end, I asked her who widened the front and flipped the wheels. She smiled, "Esteban did it for me a couple of days ago. He said he knew this tractor well. I'm only doing a few rows a day before we pull the weeds. We'll be done weeding in a week or so. Wouldn't you know that as soon as we begin homeschooling the kids so that they can work in the garden, we won't need them."

I told her, "Well, you know the deal. We could run wild when we didn't have things to do. Are you going to let them do some exploring?"

"Damn, Mike. I want to, but I'm just a pansy about them running around out here. Something could happen to them and they could need us."

With a smile, I told Sissy, "I'm sure Mom and Dad worried about us too, but they let us run. Let 'em go; let them do some exploring. They have to learn. Go walking with them a couple of times and help them look for snakes so they will know where to look. Come on, Sis, let them be kids."

I knew Mato and Minya would want to go with them, but I figured I might have to hold my two back a while until they are older. Sissy's and Shirley's kids were just on the edge of being old enough to have good judgment and make good decisions. I'm sure the additional responsibility of the smaller two would be too much. While it's true that good judgment comes from experience, and a lot of that experience comes from bad judgment, you still have to be ready to survive the experience and learn from it.

I hollered at the kids and told them, "Come on, let's go exploring a little and maybe we can find a snake, bear, or mountain lion." Six kids came running as fast as they could. I suggested that the girls go to the bathroom before we walked out. I directed the boys to water some weeds on the side of the road away from the others.

I thought I might go to our side of the mountain first when we started out, so we walked around the back where the big vineyard and orchard was. We cut through there and walked along the side of the rocky mountain, looking for any sign of animals. We found some fox tracks, and then saw some raccoon tracks near the end of the vineyard row. I made sure the kids looked at them and understood that those little holes in the tracks were claws that went into the soft earth.

We walked past Eliza's and Bud's graves on the other side. The kids all wanted to know about the two people, so I told them as much as I could. They understood that Eliza and Bud had lived here many years and it was Eliza who sold me the farm.

We next walked through the high end of the pasture, where the stock all bunched up to look at us, wondering what we were doing. I showed the kids the small cave that had water pouring down the back wall, running into a small pool, and sinking into the earth. They saw how I collected water and funneled it outside to the big trough for the stock. The water that ran over the sides of the trough quickly seeped into the rocky soil and disappeared.

Further on, we went through the far gate and looked at the fair-sized sweet corn field there. We walked around the edge to see if we could see any tracks, but we only saw some more raccoon or opossum tracks.

We went back up and followed the rocky side of the hill until we came to the area where the cannon had fallen from the ledge above. I pointed up and told the kids, "There is a big cave up there that you probably shouldn't go to unless your Mom or I are with you. One of us will take you there soon. You can't easily get to it from here, but there are better and easier ways to get up there. Let me show you a big ravine that's interesting." I knew that if I told them about the cave and didn't show it to them under safe conditions soon that they would show it to themselves under unsafe conditions.

We walked another quarter mile until we came to the huge rocky ravine. Just as we came around a cedar bush, a deer jumped out and ran away. The kids all became excited to see game. I thought about showing them the steps down to the cave at the bottom, but decided against it. I knew the boys would be checking this place out soon enough, and would probably find the cave with the stream at the bottom.