Chapter 60

I called the butcher Monday morning to see how many of the Angus he wanted at a time. I told him that I had at least a dozen that were ready and looked good. He told me to bring in two a day this week, but that it would be okay if I couldn't make it on Friday since that was his second heaviest retail day. He made the comment that he was able to handle a lot more stock than he had previously now that both of his sons were working with him full time.

We had placed the mature Angus that were ready to ship in the pasture area with our two cows and the old horse. There were fifteen that we had felt were ready to butcher, which represented enough money to pay for all our purchases at the two auctions, and still have cash left over to donate to Mom's trip to Hawaii.

D was like a little kid, almost dancing around the house in his excitement to go on what he considered his dream vacation. He gathered his girls and instructed them as to what needed to be done in his greenhouse while he was gone. He asked me to check on the fuel for his heaters daily so he could ensure the sprouts' success this spring.

When I had delivered two of the Angus to the butcher and washed the trailer out, I went over to the Hampton place to look at the equipment we bought. There were still eight of the snow trucks full of small equipment and hand tools that needed to be separated and divided for the various locations.

Jimmy had assumed his usual leadership role and came to me, "We have enough room here to build a quick pole barn so we can work on this equipment, Mike. We can haul some down to the road yard, but all of your other equipment storage areas are full. We need to cull this machinery, along with what we have, so we can get it to the market before planting season. Do you think Raul could do that?"

I told him, "Well, there's no time like the present. He's working in the house right now, but doesn't have a big crew here. Let's find out."

Raul only had two other men working on the house. He immediately began apologizing when I came in. "I'm sorry I can't get a big crew over here right away, Mike. Coup needed to finish up a U.S. Steel building that was left unfinished. He told me the previous builder went out of business and Coup wasn't able to find the former workers. We should be done by Friday, but we're really going to get behind."

I asked, "What happened to all of those men you had working? I know you had about thirty men there for a while."

Raul frowned, "They all work for Coup now. He has so much work that I could even have all of my men work for him full time. He's even willing to pay me subcontractor fees for us to help."

I had an idea, "Let me talk to Bernie and see if he can advertise for some men for you. I need a pole barn built and we need to get this place completed, along with Teddy's and the Temple places. How many men and what trades do you need?"

Raul thought for a second and said, "Most good carpenters are good handymen, so they would work on the houses, but I could use just about all trades because as soon as I bring a dozen in, Coup is going to steal most of them. I'll make a deal with Coup to let me keep a good-sized crew."

Thinking that the pole barn was going to have to wait I was surprised by what Raul said next, "If you let me use your road crew, I think we can get that pole barn up in a couple of days if it doesn't rain. Do you want to do that and let the house wait?"

Jimmy was with me and said, "All the guys will help. You tell us what to do and we'll do it, Raul."

Raul took Jimmy by the arm and said, "Show me where you want this building and let's figure out what size."

I called the local radio station to see if Bernie was there. They told me he was in Lexington, so I called the main operator in Lexington who said she needed a leash on Bernie because it was always tough to find him.

The hard to find Bernie finally answered, and I asked, "I need you to tell me how to advertise for some construction workers. If you have any agreements with Cincinnati stations, we might be able to list the jobs there, too. Raul mostly needs carpenters, but he also needs most other trades. What should I do?"

Bernie almost laughed, "You're too much, Mike. The country is nose deep in a depression or recession, and you can't get enough people to work. Tell you what, I'll put something together and begin advertising on the TV channel and radio stations here and down there. We will cover a lot of area quickly. I'll try to do a reciprocal deal with a couple of Cincinnati stations and we'll get this going. You have to set up somewhere for people to call. Get a couple of bored housewives and a small office with phones. Call me as soon as you get the phone numbers."

I called Benson and told him what I needed. He told me, "There's a little one room office next to mine that will work. I'll call the telephone company and get some lines in there and see if Benny over at the office store has some junk desks or tables we could use. I'll get my girl to call some of her buddies to see if they want to work for a couple of weeks. That should just about do it. I'll call you with the telephone numbers, and you need Raul to tell us what the women answering the phones should tell the callers and what they should ask them."

I walked out to the area where the equipment was and listened as Raul was giving directions on how he wanted the space graded where the machine shed or pole barn was going to be built. You could see the men getting excited to have a project to work on.

I snagged Raul when he turned; "I need you to come home for lunch with me. We have to make up what you want to ask the applicants and what you want the people answering the phone to tell them."

"What people answering the phone?" Raul asked, suspiciously looking at me.

"Oh yeah, Bernie is going to advertise on the TV and radio stations here, Lexington, and up in Cincinnati. Benson is getting us an office with a couple of phones, and his secretary is finding a couple of women to work the phones for a couple of weeks. I'll bet we only need to advertise for a week before you're swamped. Do you really have enough work for a lot of men?"

Raul told me, "Let me get my guys and we'll take you up on the lunch. Let's get to your place so we can get those questions down on paper."

I called home before I left the Hampton place. When I asked Millie if there was enough to feed Raul and his men, she said, "We have a big pot of stew cooking that will feed all the road men, too. Jimmy told me they would probably be here for lunch."

Going over to the guys, I told them, "Millie just told me she had stew for lunch. Those of you eating on the mountain, saddle up. I'm on my way there now."

My house, which used to be a tiny cabin, was full of activity again. My sister and sister-in-law were there with their kids, three of the women from below, as well as my family, who were trying to help Mom get ready for her Hawaiian vacation.

I gave them a warning that Raul and a couple of his men were coming, as well as most of the road guys. They were going to fill more than one table.

Rosita always made a big deal out of greeting me with some very intimate hugs and kisses when the ladies from below were at the house. Sissy thought it was funny, and often followed Rosita giving me a very un-sisterly kiss. She would always turn to the women, who were covering their mouths with their hands, and wink. She's such a tease.

There was a surprise as Camille was waiting expectantly at the door, but Calvin didn't come in right away. John didn't come in either, so you had to figure the two were discussing something outside. Camille was wilting when the door opened and John, followed by Calvin, came in. Camille grabbed Calvin's hand and smiled, "I'm glad you came for lunch. Can I help you with your boots?"

Calvin was blushing as Camille pushed him back to sit next to John on the bench. John said, "Carla does that for me all of the time. It really shows you how important you are to them."

That was probably the wrong thing to say, as Calvin blushed even deeper. He would have really blushed if he knew what Camille would have been willing to do for or with him to gain his interest.

Everyone sat and ate the delicious beef stew over the top of biscuits.

The kids, my nieces and nephews, and Minya, Mato, and John, began telling me of their morning and what they were learning. Sissy leaned over to me and said, "I have a bill for you that will choke you up. I bought them all laptops for school. Mervin gave us a WIFI hotspot so that the kids' laptops will all work at the same time and the older girls' high school classes will be accessible."

John came over to me and wanted up. He did his usual of pulling on one of my ears or just touching my face when I picked him up. What he did next startled me, "Want puter like Mato."

After digesting what he asked, I asked in return, "What will you do with a computer?"

John smiled and said, "I learn. Mato and Minya will help me."

Sissy looked at me sideways and said, "Your firstborn wants to be the same as his adopted siblings. What ya gonna do about it?"

The only thing I could do was laugh. John, who could barely talk, and my adopted kids were setting me up. I'd bet Sissy's and Shirley's kids had a part in this as well.

Raul saved me by saying, "We need to get the questions for the phone people down on paper."

We went to my office and worked on what to tell the callers and what questions to ask. Appointments were to begin Wednesday morning at the latest. Everything depended on how fast Benson was able to put the office together and how fast the advertising would begin.

My cell phone rang and the ID showed that it was Benson. "What's happening, Benson?"

"This is going to cost you one first class supper tonight. Your new construction employment office has two desks and chairs, along with two phones. There are two ladies who actually begged for the temporary jobs. Heck, I might be able to market their availability when this is over. Let me give you the numbers so you can get this show on the road."

I called Bernie as soon as I hung up on Benson. He was in his office and I was able to give him the numbers. He asked me, "Are you ready to take callers now? I can have the first ad on the TV and radio stations in fifteen minutes or so, if you are. We made up a bunch of ads of different lengths, from ten to thirty seconds. I'll flash this through the network and we'll be up and running. Are you ready?"

"Do it, Bernie. I love the way a plan comes together. Let me e-mail you what we'll tell the callers and our questions. You might be able to use them."

Bernie was obviously smiling, "That'll work. Send 'em."

I also sent Benson a copy of the information and questions, while telling him what hours to begin interviews. He said he would pass it on to the ladies working the phones so they could practice.

It was about two o'clock when Benson called me, "What tha, ah, ah, heck did you do? The two phones in the little office are constantly ringing. This is unbelievable, Mike. They have already made appointments for later this afternoon, and all day Tuesday through Thursday. Someone probably needs to come to look over the questionnaires, as there can't be that many men out of work."

"I don't know, Benson. Most of the country is in pretty bad shape. The ads reached up into Ohio, so we're going to get a lot of calls from men who haven't had any opportunities for a while. I'll get Raul to go down to the office and see what he's getting into."

Driving over to the Hampton place gave me a chance to think this through a little more. I wondered if some builders would be willing to trade dollars for work. A builder could just make enough to keep his family fed, but he would also be keeping many other families fed by giving the men work. That was a far out concept, but it might be necessary to keep so many eating.

Once I was at the Hampton place, I noticed the roadmen with John and Calvin working with the equipment we had bought. Dismissing them, I looked Raul up and told him, "You are going to begin interviewing in about an hour. Let's get your men home unless they have their own transportation and get you to town. We have appointments set up through seven tonight, and I've called Coup to ask him if he would agree to pay you a buck an hour for those who went to work for him. He's willing to pay you the spiff for a month. It's not a lot, but it could make a difference."

I called home and asked Millie, "Can you go get Raul's new wife so she can eat with us later? Raul and I will have to talk to people until at least seven-thirty."

Millie was happy to do what I needed, so we were ready for those first people who came to interview. The road men said they would make sure Raul's men got home so that they could continue working in the house.

Raul and I spent a couple of hours talking to men desperate for work. Of the six we talked to, only three were really qualified. Two weren't citizens and one wouldn't answer questions about police warrants and illegal activities.

As we got ready to leave, Raul said, "You've given me three new men so far. That's going to help build the pole barn and work on the Hampton house. Jose is working on the Temple place with one other man. He says the place is a trash heap, but it shouldn't be that big of a problem once it's cleaned out. I do have some relatives coming who are good carpenters, or in actuality, good handymen, who can do just about anything. I promise to get them to Benson before I let them hammer the first nail. Can I do that with my family men, Mike?"

I really trusted Raul and said, "Do it exactly as you just said. That'll make the whole community happy."

Our peaceful home on the mountain wasn't. Mom was going ballistic over not finding everything she wanted to take with her. Multiple trips to Sissy's and Shirley's were required to collect those items they had borrowed, until Mom was sitting in a small table chair looking at her closed bags.

After supper, and most of the people had left, she said, "I'm ready. I hope D is almost ready, n too. Come into the office for a second, Mike."

Mom and I went into the office and she told me, "Let's separate the gold certificates that were in Teddy's stuff and give a list to the coin dealer and see what he can get from collectors. We'll make a list of the bills and their serial numbers so that it will be easy to make sure we get what we should."

Mom and I spent over an hour going through the bills before we were satisfied that we had them all separated. It took another hour to list them all, so we were done with the bills properly separated, listed, and in various stacks somewhere around eleven o'clock. I e-mailed the list to the coin dealer.

Before we went to bed, Mom told me, "D and I will take my car to the airport in Cincinnati in the morning. Our plane doesn't leave until one, but we have to stop at the travel agency in Lexington on the way to pick up our tickets and itinerary. This trip is very exciting, Mike. I've always wanted to go to Hawaii, so this is really special."

Tuesday morning began a little strange. I was on my way to the barn when a car with two of the ladies from below drove up. When they got out, they told me that Mom wanted them to do morning chores. They said that they would take care of the milking after I showed them how to operate the pasteurizing equipment, if I would do the heavy feeding.

I might have been a little pissed at Mom for getting outside help without talking to me, but I figured it would be fine as the ladies came up from below daily to work on making cream, butter, buttermilk, as well as egg cleaning and packing anyway.

Anita and Carmen had the milking completed by the time I had made the rounds to dole hay out to the various groups of animals. The mature Angus steers that I had in the main pasture area were doing well, but they were typical Angus and wanted to stay inside the covered area and out of the cold at night. The bad thing was all the extra manure that would have to be scooped out of the barn, but the good thing was that we were going to need the extra as fertilizer for our increased acreage.

That's when I had an idea. I chuckled to myself, thinking jokingly that it was a pretty shitty idea. I could make a tour of the farmers in the area and maybe make a deal to clean their barns out and dispose of their manure. I'll dispose of it all right; I'll spread it over sixty acres of bottom land. I would need a couple of pieces of equipment though. I would need a dump truck that could pull a trailer, and a small tractor or front loader to clean loafing sheds and open barn areas. Two men could probably be kept busy by cleaning stalls in barns as well as the general grazing areas. It wouldn't be a problem to haul it to our fields and pile it up until we needed it if the farmers were careful with their baling twine and wire. Another manure spreader would also be good. Oh yeah, Bert has a decent John Deere spreader that isn't that old, and it would be like new with the way he maintains his equipment. There also was one in the equipment we picked up at the auction last weekend that the guys were going to be working on.

Breakfast became a 'Bon Voyage' party for Mom and D. Sissy and Shirley showed up with their kids so that everyone could say goodbye to Mom or Grandma depending on who she was hugging. D and Mom were both nervous wrecks, but they were able to finish eating, load up in Mom's car, and drive off.

I called Jimmy after breakfast to find out where he would be so I could talk to him about my idea. He said he had just sent four men out on road problems, but the rest of the men were on the way back to the Hampton place to help Raul with the pole barn and to work on equipment. I told him I would meet him there after I made a trip to town with a couple of Angus.

It didn't take long to load the two Angus into the trailer and haul them to the butcher. I hurried home and luckily didn't have to wash out the trailer. Since I was going to need it again tomorrow, I left my pickup with the stock trailer in the yard and took the Jeep to go see Raul.

The Jeep was good transportation and warm with the heavy fiberglass cab mounted. It was fun to drive the smaller vehicle since I didn't need my pickup truck. I could get in and out of tight places easier and usually go into fields without worrying about getting stuck. I still had to watch out to make sure I didn't sink in soft mud up to the axles.

I found John and Calvin, and got them together with Jimmy. I described what I thought could be a way for us to get sufficient natural fertilizer, along with the equipment I felt we would need. Jimmy offered, "About half of our snow trucks are dump trucks. Mounting a trailer hitch wouldn't be a big deal and I think one of them already has a hitch. We have a couple of extra trailers we've picked up with equipment we've bought, but we don't have a small front loader. All our equipment is larger so it can handle big rocks, trees, and even equipment sometimes. How about making a trip to Lexington to see what's available? If you find something, we can run up and get it later."

John and Calvin thought farmers might be willing to pay to get their barns cleaned, and they both felt that I shouldn't have too much trouble getting a couple of men for that operation. They advised that we collectively owned three decent manure spreaders besides the ancient one on the mountain.

John and Calvin laughed when I asked for their opinion on how difficult it might be to get a couple of men to work at that operation. John was the one who said, "There should be enough farm boys around here that want work, so you should find all you need. Clothes and bodies are both easily washed at the end of the day. You're going to have to have a place where they can frequently clean the trucks and loader, and for that, the road yard wash station should work. Get them a half dozen sets of coveralls and some good boots, and they'll be able to slip those on while they're handling manure and strip them all off when they're moving around."

A big flatbed tractor-trailer was pulling up into the yard carrying what must be the materials for the pole barn. The men already had the poles set in concrete, ready for the rest of the easy construction. Someone had already run an electric line to a new power pole near the new building, so they were ready to put light and power in as they built it

I told them all that I was on my way to Lexington and to call if they needed anything. I called home on the way to advise them I wouldn't be home for lunch, and that I was on my way to look at some equipment. That's when I realized that I could kill two birds with one stone and turned toward the mountain instead.

I pulled all of the gold and silver certificates from the safe at home, putting them into one of the leather bags the coin dealer had given me before. The bags weren't normally very useful for me, but they worked perfectly for what I needed right that minute.

I drove straight to the coin dealer in Lexington after some hugs from the women and kids. The man was happy that I had brought the certificates in and said that he had talked to several collectors about them. He had the list I had sent him and he now could see how I had graded the various conditions.

The dealer was surprised at the great condition the bills were in, and said the only thing that could have been better would have been to have the bills in individual protective covers. He replied that it would take a couple of hours to grade them when I asked how long he was going to be, so I told him that I was going to check on some equipment and be back.

The equipment yard had the usual big inventory of just about anything someone would need for construction, especially road construction. I noticed what farm equipment the yard next door had but it appeared to be nearly empty, and very low on inventory.

The same man that I had dealt with way back when I came here the first time discussed what I was looking for with me. I told him we were going to use one of the snow trucks that had a dump bed and hitch, along with an existing trailer.

"Come look at something. I can probably get you a deal on it, but you'll be buying it direct from the bank. It's been sitting here for over six months and I've been charging them storage. It might be just right for what you want."

We went to a back corner of his lot and looked at a Ford F800 single axle dump truck hooked up to a trailer holding a Bobcat S100 loader. The truck, trailer, and front loader were all dusty, but the equipment under the dust didn't look like it had been used much.

The front loader had a regular bucket and a fork that could be attached to the bucket. That would be good for manure. The trailer looked good, but it had obviously been sitting a while as the tires could use some air. There was an air hose connected between the truck and trailer telling me the trailer had air brakes. The truck looked as nearly perfect as a used work truck could. It had a white cab and black dump body. When I climbed up on the side of the truck to look into the back, the paint wasn't even worn off the inside of the bed. The sides weren't nicked up or scratched very much, as if the toughest load the truck had carried was topsoil.

The dealer opened the truck up and turned the key on to heat the glow plugs, explaining that the truck came with a Cummins diesel engine. Surprising me, the truck started with only a few turns. We let it idle while we went back to the Bobcat where the dealer went through the same procedure. That small diesel engine started easily as well.

We heard the brake air compressor on the truck shut off, so I looked at the air gauge on the trailer and saw the available air was over forty pounds. This was a nice rig, but it might be out of my price range. It did give me an idea of what size front loader I would need. This one was low enough to get in and out of seven foot overhead entryways and had a bucket wide enough to move some manure very quickly. The small wheel loader would actually be a great machine handling small jobs on a farm. I'd bet there was a round bale hay fork available for this model that would be very handy for a lot of farmers.

We shut everything down, then I did the normal thing and asked, "Okay, how much?"

The dealer said, "Depends on how the bank feels today. I just sent them their storage invoice, so they are going to be interested in not incurring any more storage charges. I can tell you what the rig is worth, what I would give for it, and what I think they'll take for it. This is a case where I'm going to make a buck on commission rather than on profit over what I bought it for. Let's go in and call the bank. Are you going to pay cash as usual? You usually just transfer funds."

I nodded and followed the man into his trailer office.

We had a cup of coffee while he played with the bank. He was telling them the equipment was taking up valuable lot space and he had a hot cash customer for the rig if the price was low enough. He had to let the bank rep talk someone above him, so he hung up and waited for a call back.

I mentioned to the salesman, "Isn't that your farm equipment lot next door?"

"Yeah, that's mine too, but I have my cousin over there working it. We're really short on equipment right now, and we've missed some good sales because the weather has been so bad on sale days; neither one of us wants to stand in the cold rain to bid on equipment."

My smile warmed the man when I said, "I've bought a couple of farms lately, and right now I'm culling equipment between the farms and some I've picked up at auctions. I just bought a bunch of equipment because no one was around to bid it up. I'll have some good tractors and lots of every type of implement you could name. You should come down to look at it at your leisure before I put it up for sale at our market."

The man said, "We often go to those Saturday markets looking for equipment, but lately there hasn't been a lot and the used equipment is bringing a good price. I'll definitely come down to look at what you have."

The phone rang and he put the call on speakerphone as he answered. The banker gave the dealer a number, and the dealer told him to go back and tighten it up a little. He gave the banker what he felt was going to be the top dollar they were going to get. I was choking over the number that was less than half of what I expected. The dealer told him to go find out and we would only be available for another five minutes. This guy was brutal to someone whose butt he should normally be kissing.

He told me, "Their interest rates suck most of the time and their customer service is even worse. They came to me because the dealer who worked the deal with them before refused to deal with them any longer. I'm making out renting space to them but I'd rather move the rig before it falls apart on me from lack of use."

The call came back and the dealer once again put the call on speakerphone. A different voice was on the phone who almost pleaded to get more out of the rig but the dealer told them that if they continued to store the truck on his place it was going to depreciate to junk value before long. That must have motivated the man as he asked if the dealer's customer agreed on the price did they still have to pay the current storage bill. The dealer grinned and acted compassionate and told the banker that he could tear up the current bill but they still had to pay the commission. The dealer was bad as I was sure the open invoice was to be paid for the next month instead of past storage.

The dealer told the banker to give him their transfer number and a transaction number for the amount. They should also e-mail him a letter of agreement that should include the non-payment of the current invoice. He gave the bank my name, address, and phone number from his records and told them a transfer would occur as soon as the letter arrived by fax or e-mail.

The man sat back and smiled, "Nice deal. I'll make my flat rate on the rig and I've been paid to keep it here. Of course we did have to wash it a time or two, but I'm making out other than that. Are you going to load your jeep in the back now, or how about we haul it down to you tomorrow or the next day along with your tags and titles? We can load up any equipment you have that you want to get rid of that way. We could use a few tractors and some implements. Spring will soon be upon us and farmers are going to want to buy equipment."

The fax machine answered a call and began spitting out sheets of paper a minute later. He handed me the transaction sheet so I could call the bank for a transfer. I called Maude and asked what account I should use before I did that. She directed me to the produce account and gave me the number.

I called the bank, gave them the instructions along with a password, and sat back. My bank said the transfer should be complete within five minutes. The dealer and I had another cup of coffee that required that I take a trip to the bathroom to make room. He was just about to call the bank when the fax whirred again and spit out more paper, advising the dealer that funds had been received.