Chapter 49

I was holding the two women to me when I woke, as they lay with their heads on my shoulders and their arms touching each other across my stomach. It's funny how I felt my love for Millie, but also felt that same warmth for Rosita. With them lying next to me touching each other, I realized that the two had a special relationship as well. That was good, as Millie will probably need help with twins, while still tending to John, Minya, and Mato. I had to smile as I already had the same kid mix that Mom and Dad had, but I was now waiting for two more to come into my life.

I didn't know what time it was, but the dogs were getting restless, telling me that it was time to get up. I slipped from the arms of the two women and watched as they moved together, hugging each other. Damn, I almost wished that I could really have two wives with the way they were lying there.

After letting the dogs out, I did the bathroom stuff and dressed, ready for another day. My mind was racing as I was trying to think of everything that needed to be done. Well, the first thing to do was make coffee, so I set the Mr. Coffee up, and also warmed some old coffee in the microwave. I wanted to get an early start getting the stock ready for milking. This was going to be the last morning of the heavy-duty hand milking here. I still hadn't figured out whether or not to keep a cow for the family.

I was taking some gulps of coffee when Sissy came into the kitchen area. She hugged me and put her head on my chest. She said, "I get some loving tonight too. You know that you should be taking care of Shirley and me while we're here. It's your responsibility to take care of us."

"Ah, Sissy, you said that you only were able to get some loving on weekends anyway, because your guys were always so busy, so you aren't deprived any more than usual."

"Hee, hee, hee, Mike, you have to know that women often want a whole lot more than what they get, but life sometimes takes the juices out of them. We don't get to think about a fling with our men until the weekend and trust me, Brother; I do take care of business then."

Mom walked in and said, "It's so nice to have my own personal dildo sleeping with me."

"Oh shit, Mom." I groaned, "That's too much information."

Sissy hissed at her and said, "Keep it to yourself, you hussy. I heard you doing all of that huffing and puffing last night. All of that, and I can't even get my own brother to help me out."

"Naughty, naughty, Daughter," Mom said, with a smile. "You know how straight-laced your brother is. He can't even accept that he is supposed to take on a second wife, much less take care of his sister or mother. I was just as needy as you before D came along."

Oh shit, these women are going to drive me nuts.

"I'm leaving. I know you two put this show on just to mess with my head, but I'm not falling for it. I'm out of here."

I walked out the door, listening to both of them laughing.

I had the cows up to the barn and had put some hay out to keep their attention before milking.

Anyone who's not familiar with cows, wouldn't know that they figure out a pecking or milking order on their own. The dominant come in to be milked first, and each less dominant comes in after. If a cow tries to get in front of another in order to get the small amount of grain they get, they get punched by the cow whose turn it really is.

Think about getting a head butt from an eighteen hundred pound cow. I think you would yield the same as the other cows.

After breakfast, Esteban said, "The haulers are supposed to already be here, so there must have been a problem. Call their cell phone for me, Mike."

That's when I realized that Esteban didn't have a cell phone or landline phone in his new house. That also meant that he didn't have cable or internet. I would have to fix that.

I called the trucker and was told that someone had slashed a couple of tires on his trailer. He would be here as soon as he put good rubber on his trailer.

We were all sitting at the picnic table in the yard when a strange truck and trailer came up the lane. The truck stopped, a guy got out, and hollered, "Where do we load the stock?"'

I got up and went over to him asking, "Where's Charlie, the owner?"

The man said, "He couldn't come this morning, so just show us where to load."

Something was wrong, so I told him to hang on for a second so I could get the key to the gate. He wasn't too smart, since farmers don't usually have locks on their gates.

Inside the house, I called Charlie and told him about someone showing up to pick up the stock. He told me the guy was a thief who would try to take the cows and disappear. I told him to call the Sheriff for me and hung up. I used the key in the drawer to get my Beretta. I slid a magazine into it and jacked a round into the chamber.

I called Mom, and when she came into the office, I told her to get her pistol and come out with me. She nodded, not asking any questions, and came back while tucking the pistol into her pants under her shirt.

I went to the man waiting for me to open the gate and asked, "How come I don't know you? I've never seen you with Charlie before?"

"What the fuck, Grayson. Do you want your animals moved or what?"

"Maybe not, at least maybe not by you. I'm not comfortable with who you are, and what I hear from Charlie."

At the mention of Charlie's name, the man reached behind him, and by the time he pulled out an old 1911 forty-five he was staring into the barrel of my Beretta.

Another of the men who had gotten out of the truck was making some movements, but Mom was standing beside him with her Beretta resting against his head.

"How about both of you get down and lie flat on the ground. There is a third lady here that is a little pissed that you might want to steal from us."

I said that as Sissy came running from the house, jacking a round into the chamber of a pistol as she ran to stand over the two.

Mom told her, "Don't get excited, Sissy. It's under control. Don't shoot them while they are on the ground like that. If you want to shoot them, make them get up and run first."

"What kind of people are you to talk about shooting us?" The main man asked, as he lay sprawled out.

Sissy said, "We're people who know how to protect what little we have. How about it, Asshole, want to try to run? You know women can't shoot worth a shit. Come on, why don't you test that theory?"

I was laughing as I sure wouldn't test that theory with Sissy or Mom.

A Sheriff's car came roaring up the lane or drive and slid to a stop near where we had the men on the ground. The Sheriff, not a Deputy walked over to where we were holding the two men and said, "Do you mean that I don't get to call the Coroner? Damn, Mike, the least you could do is to give him some business."

The two men were quickly searched, cuffed, and put into the back of the Sheriff's car. He began going through the truck to see if he could further identify the men. He came to me with some papers and said, "This here truck and trailer was just bought up Lexington way and ain't even registered yet. I'll bet Gert could figure a way to get your name on the titles of this here equipment. These two are going to be gone for twenty years or so. I'll bet they will make a deal for that rather than life, considering they attempted to draw a gun on you. Be ready to testify, just in case you have to, Mike."

Mom gave the Sheriff a hug as he left to get the bad guys to the County lockup.

What do I need a tractor and stock trailer for? My answer came up the lane. The regular truckers were coming up and stopped next to the new looking truck.

It took a few minutes for them to be told the story and that there was now a tractor and trailer that needed to be used. I told Charlie, "How about using this to help you out getting the stock over to the new place? It will take three loads if you do it the same as before."

We went for the stock in the new pasture first. It did take a while, but we were able to get the dairy herd that included cows that were ready to drop, the calves, and the bulls, into the big trailer. We loaded half the cows that were fresh into the new truck next. I sent them off to Bert's with Esteban following.

Mom told me, "Take those papers into the Town Clerk and see if she can put that truck and trailer into your name, or someone else's that you might want the truck to go to. Now get, we have some berry picking to do."

At the County Courthouse, Gert held her hand out for the papers I as soon as I walked into the clerk's office, and said, "Go across the street to Benson's and I'll call you when I'm ready. You're going to have to pay for title transfers, but the truck and trailer will be yours. Good, quick thinking this morning, Mike."

This town was so funny, but also like most rural towns, it's not too smart to come to an area like this and attempt to steal from people. I later heard that the Sheriff confiscated enough money to buy tires for Charlie, the hauler who had his tires slashed. That was fair, not necessarily the way the law might see it, but fair.

Benson fed me some coffee as he was cackling over my getting an almost new truck and trailer. He said, "Your luck is holding, Mike. You get a couple of farms, and now a truck and trailer. How are you going to use that new truck?"

I looked at Benson and told him, "How about I make a once in a lifetime deal with the real trucker. He'll be able to haul that much more at the same time, and everyone will be happy."

"You don't want anything for it?" Benson was probing, asking his usual fifty questions.

"Naw; I don't need the truck, and I sure don't want to have to insure it too. I don't move a lot of stock around, so someone else can use it better than me."

Benson was smiling. "You keep doing exactly what I consider is the absolute right thing to do. You'll make that man, and just about everyone else in the county, happy when they hear the full story. Go back to Gert; she should have your titles finished."

The fees for the truck and trailer were a little higher than I would have thought, but the man who would have to cover all the fees would think they were nothing. Gert had looked up Charlie's other vehicles and transferred the vehicle and trailer to him.

When I got back home, I found out that all the stock had been hauled away, except there was a lonely looking deer out in the middle of the parking area. The buck was going to be lonely, but he could always go over to where the beef stock was grazing and find the other deer hiding among them.

After lunch, I drove to town to find the trucker's office. He had a pole barn where he worked on his tractors. The new tractor and trailer were off to the side when I drove up. I'm sure the man didn't think that I would do what I did next.

After a handshake inside the man's office, I said, "Here are the titles for the truck and trailer out there. Let me know if you think that I owe you something more than the value of the equipment. I know it takes cash to keep a business running."

The man looked at me funny and asked, "Are you giving me that truck and trailer?"

"That's what I'm telling you. You had to go through some bullshit to get new tires and have them installed this morning. I don't have anything but aggravation invested in the truck and trailer, so they are yours. Use them and help those that need the help. Pass it along."

The man looked at me, squinting a little, "You take the cake, Mike. I'll send you a check for the title transfer money, and you can forget about owing anything for this morning's activities. I really needed another truck and trailer, and you've found it for me. Thank you, Man, thank you very much. Next haul is on me as well, okay?"

I smiled at the man as I drove the Jeep from his yard.

Without really thinking about it, I stopped by the newspaper and radio station office. Bernie was on his console, talking to listeners, when I sat down. He said, "Well, Folks, the Road Commissioner just sat down with me, so I may have to do some business with him. If you want, I'll hurry him through what he has on his mind, after that we'll welcome a couple of calls."

Bernie grinned at me, "The news has it that you and Mom were holding a couple of potential thieves at gunpoint when the Sheriff drove up. Tell me about that, Mike."

I couldn't see any light on the panel, so I told Bernie the story right down to the transfer of ownership of the truck and trailer. Bernie was nodding in understanding while I was telling the story, and wasn't playing with any buttons.

When I finished, Bernie said, "You heard it right here, Folks. Mike Grayson captures a couple of thieves and gives the spoils away to our local trucker. How's that for a great Kentucky good morning, right here in Stanton?"

The sucker had me on the air and I couldn't tell. The man is sneaky.

Bernie said, "Do you know that the new antennas are erected and our new FM station is being broadcast all over Kentucky, southern Ohio, Indiana, and West Virginia, Mike? We'll have to do a survey to find out how far the station reaches, but let me tell you, Mystery Mountain has unlocked our station."

Bernie made me stay to answer a few callers that were only calling to tell me 'good job'. He pointed to his phone that had a bank of lines blinking, so I knew he was being good to me. I left the man to calm his audience.

I drove by the road yard just for fun, to see what was happening with the apartment building. Pipe was being laid out to the road to tie into the sewer system. Water and gas piping were being put in, as well as conduit for electricity. This was all happening before the foundation of the building was poured. Four men were building forms for the foundation, and several plumbers were fitting pipes that would feed water to the building and take the sewage away.

It was amazing what can be done by someone who plans and supervises. Raul was one of the best.

I wanted to check with Esteban on the stock, so I drove there. The cows were out grazing in the lush field. They were all together, except for the two bulls that were in a separate fenced enclosure.

Esteban came out of the barn to greet me. He said, "The cows are all comfortable, and I'm sure they will give a good quantity of milk this evening. We are very excited to be milking them all and pasteurizing the milk now. We will soon separate some milk for cheeses. The cheese cooling rooms were built along with the milk house area. We will have plenty of room for cheese to age."

Without even thinking, Esteban said, "Now that we have a real operation, a real dairy farm, you could probably get us another thirty to forty head. We should be many dollars ahead of the other dairy farmers if we sell specialty milk. You now have the purest organic milk and milk products in the county, and possibly in the state, Mike. I'll help keep it that way."

While I was there, I called and made arrangements for phone service, as well as cable and Internet access to Esteban's new house. I would make sure I found him a PC the next trip up to Mount Sterling.

I drove back to Mystery Mountain thinking of everything that we had accomplished to date, and what needed to be done in the future. I needed to sit down and analyze everything we were doing to make sure we were on target.

I kissed Millie and John at the house before going into my office. I used a large spiral notebook and began writing my operations down.

First was the farm. I had three orchards and three vineyards, along with enough sweet corn to feed what I thought should be half of North America. We were going to have another bumper crop of veggies, but that was a given with the way the fields were being treated.

Then there were the orchards. I had worked at getting the stock out and cleaning up any manure on the ground. The fruit that became over-ripe or that hit the ground early or too hard could become cider. We could also distill it and that would purify it further.

The vineyards are going to produce far beyond what they should, but I think D and I are ready. We would make as much wine as we could, and distill as much grappa and brandy as possible. The bottlers would come by and bottle what we wanted to sell out of state, but we would be selling a lot of our product locally. Did we have enough to do that, or did we have so much that we needed to bottle even more? Only time would tell.

The smokehouses were producing exactly what we wanted them to produce. The butcher was happy, the Kitchen was happy, and we had enough to sell at the markets in Stanton and Pine Ridge. We really couldn't handle many more hogs, and our supplier was raising hogs at the perfect rate. We were doing well. It also meant that I could get out of the hog business on the farm.

The path clearing crew was nearing the end of our contracted work, but the cable company was already dickering over yet more cable paths. Who knew how long that endeavor would last?

The other wood cutting crew was busy working various properties, clearing land to cultivate, and clearing trees that would bring extra money to the land owner's operation.

That brought me to the firewood business. The two men working there were stocking firewood in cord sections all along the back of the property. As new logs came in, they would cut it and split it to fill the bins for each cord. The corded wood from the previous year was there; ready to be distributed to those who wanted to prepare for the coming winter.

I made sure there was enough wood stored at my place to take care of both fireplaces for the coming winter.

The other important wood was the hickory for the smokehouses. The stack of firewood ready to use for the smokehouses was important and neatly stacked. I now kept all of the firewood under a tarp to keep it dry and ready to use.

That should do it. Harvest was a couple months away, except for the small veggies that we pulled from the ground on a continuing basis. Romaine and iceberg lettuce was ready often, and green beans began appearing rapidly along with tomatoes. This was a living, breathing, producing farm.

Sissy's and Shirley's husbands were visiting every weekend, giving the families some time together out in the country. Their rooms were big, and nice enough that they were harassed by the kids less than they were at home. The couples had the privacy necessary for some intimate times.

There was little to do in the morning with the cows gone. I think the hogs missed the skim milk we had been feeding them, but I had a feeling that this group of hogs that were near ready to butcher was going to be the last we would raise. The farmer supplying the butcher and me with hogs raised enough for us, and I didn't need the extra. I might consider more beef stock, but I needed to develop a breeding system for our stock like Esteban had for the dairy animals.

The garden produced more and more as summer progressed, until the day the Kroger inspector told me, "We're going to begin harvesting corn. You have two fields that are ready, so we'll be bringing our people in to pull ears."

Mom and some of the Mexican women wanted the corn in our garden area to ripen a little more, but they also wanted at least fifty feet of one row of corn to become seed for the next year in case Kroger didn't sponsor us.

D was getting excited, but also prepared, as fall came closer. The girls were all a heartbeat from their weddings, but were ready to remain and help D through the wine pressing. They would still need jobs after they married, and D's work was what they knew.

Raul called me one morning in early August. "Come down to the road yard, Mike. You need to see how we're doing."

He had to be almost done, since the building was up and Raul's men were working on the interior, the last time I looked.

Sure enough, I was very impressed when Raul took me into an entrance and there was a large common area where all of the tenants could congregate. The back of the common area was all glass and looked out over a concrete patio that had grills placed about every twenty feet in front of a dense forest.

We looked at two of the apartments to see how well they were put together. Jimmy came in while we were looking at them, and said, "Mike, this place is really nice, and the apartments are much larger than any of us expected. This is great, and all of us appreciate what you've done, Mike. Now all of us need to get married and moved in."

The weddings on Saturday became one of the biggest events the church and possibly the town had ever had. There was a huge outdoor tent on church property, where everyone gathered for the mass wedding. I had figured that each couple would marry separately, but they had Harold do all of them at once.