Chapter 7

I was up, doing the chores before six, since the fuel delivery was going to be early. I still had to notch the cross members, but the delivery shouldn't be until seven. Ben showed up, so I could quickly make the notches using my small chainsaw. I was getting very good with it.

I had just cleaned up the saw and put it away when the distributor showed up. The first thing he did was to park by my new stand, and together, we put the two new diesel barrels up in the notched locations with a large capped hole dead center at the bottom. He told me to go get a couple of big pipe wrenches and began knocking out the plugs for the hose couplers. We set the couplers on all three barrels and put the hose and nozzle attachments on them.

This guy was smart. He had an air hose connected to the compressor for his air brakes. He put a cork with an air connector in the top of the barrel and squirted a soap mixture around the bottom connector with the nozzle. He sprayed air into the tanks and kept an eye on the connections. There were no bubbles. He tested the air pressure by squeezing the nozzle. Air rushed out. He did all three barrels the same way, then began filling them. The first was a barrel of gasoline, followed by two barrels of diesel. When he had pulled his truck closer to the mound where the propane tank was, he told me, "Pull your truck around and I'll fill both of your tanks. I noticed you only filled one at the station yesterday." I told him that was because the front tank had still been full and the only fuel I used was from town to here.

I went to the house to get my debit card, and when he finished filling the big five hundred gallon propane tank, I was ready with the card. He processed the sale, gave me a receipt, and said, "I'll be at Teddy's in about an hour. The roads are clear and I didn't have any trouble getting up your drive."

The man left and I was excited to begin working on so many things on the place. Spring was wonderful.

I met the distributor at Teddy's driveway, and while we unloaded the big Caterpillar tractor, Teddy came out of the driveway on his tractor. The distributor asked if Teddy was going to start buying gas and fuel again, and Teddy told him about his road. The distributor whacked me on the back, saying, "This thing is going to pay for itself with the jobs you're lining up. You just may want to buy it for yourself. I'll sell you the tractor, the hauling tractor and trailer, and all my extra parts for this thing cheap. Think about it."

The man wanted to make sure I could operate his tractor and I found out it was like driving an old APC (armored personnel carrier) or command track. In addition to the normal controls, this had handles for the blade. You could put the blade at a variety of angles to do grading, leveling, loading, and scraping. After going over how the blade operated, the man showed me where all the grease fittings were and where to check the oil, hydraulic fluid, and fuel. The bucket had detachable forks on it, and I didn't need those for what I was going to do, so I took those off with some tools I had in my truck.

The distributor left and Teddy climbed up in the cab. "Let me ride down the road on the first pass so I can show you where the big rocks are. The last time we tried to do this with Eliza's tractor and her little blade, we darn near wrecked the tractor and the blade." I wondered where the blade was kept, since I didn't remember seeing it anywhere.

Three hours later, I had the road leveled and ready to put the rock down. The big rocks or boulders that were there were now road markers at the side of the road. For not knowing anything about grading, I thought the leveling job on the road was very professional

At Teddy's end, I stopped and asked him if he would like lunch. If he came for lunch, he could drive me back so I wouldn't have my truck down there too. I figured on getting the rock spread and tamped in by evening.

At the house, I suddenly realized Teddy didn't know about the ladies. Oh well, he might as well find out now rather than be surprised later.

I wasn't too dirty, but still washed up in the barn. The guineas let me know Teddy was coming and the dogs went nuts until he got out, then tried to lick him to death. At the house, Teddy and I sat on the little bench and took our boots off. While we were doing that, the women came over and I introduced them to Teddy.

He squinted at Mildred and asked, "Was that you and your brother that used to come visit me all the time? We used to do a little trading for honey, didn't we? Jorgenson right?"

Mildred replied, "It is good to see you, Mister Anderson. This is my daughter, Summer, and Summer, this is Teddy Anderson. He used to not like to be called Mister Anderson. He said it made him sound too old."

"Still do, young lady. Summer, please call me Teddy."

We ate lunch while Teddy asked a thousand questions, but didn't really find out much about Mildred and her brother. He was sad the brother had died. I think he thought that I had met her somewhere else and they were only visiting to get a look at their old place.

After lunch, I went back to work on Teddy's driveway. I was able to spread the rock fairly evenly and run back and forth on the road to make it fairly smooth. Teddy couldn't thank me enough, promising a cheap harvest this year. While I stopped to pick up the equipment I had left at the end of the driveway, Teddy came out of it with his truck, heading toward town or the widow's.

On the way home, I made a couple of leveling passes at Ben's driveway and ran across it several times to tamp it down. The road drained well naturally, so it was hard even with the thaw. It really didn't take much to make it nice.

I drove the tractor up to our place and dropped the blade to take off a little of the hump. The dirt was solid clay with some rock mixed in. I would easily be able to do the driveway.

After filling up the fuel tank, spraying the dirt off, and greasing the tractor, I checked the oil and hydraulic fluid. While fooling with the tractor, I found the operating and maintenance manual, so I took that into the house.

Ben was already there and had already finished doing the chores. He said, "You've got some good help here. They did the chickens, and Summer even helped feed the pigs, steer, and yearling. All I had to do was milk, and Mildred showed me that she knew how to do that. I had to scoop up a load, but that's about it. Mildred wants me to leave the can so she can churn tonight.

"We'll go to Friday market early and do some trading. You need to bring a couple of bushels of those sweet potatoes, and a bushel of those red potatoes, and one of onions. I don't know how much you have left, but a lot of people ask about them."

That night there was no fooling around. The next morning, Ben showed up early and suggested, "How about doing a little trading at our market, then run down to Pine Ridge and let you get to know some of those folks. They need to know you better. Bring some of your wine."

Mildred and Summer heard the conversation and asked to come along with us. We loaded up eggs, about five pounds of butter, and three bushels each of sweet potatoes, red potatoes, and onions. Just for kicks, I put another goose in a cage to see if I could lessen my goose population. Having so many geese is expensive, as they eat a lot. The last thing I loaded were five gallons of wine that I couldn't legally sell in Stanton, but could in Pine Ridge.

We ended up trading all of our sweet potatoes in Stanton, but only one bushel of red potatoes and one of onions. We sold the cream to the Kitchen, along with all our eggs. It seems some of the farmers were cutting down on their chicken population as the cost of grain was up. Maybe I could raise enough to sell more eggs. That was going to take a bigger chicken house.

The ladies drew a lot of attention, but country people are wary of new people as well as just plain nosy. No one had really asked any probing questions yet.

Down at the smaller Pine Ridge market, I traded all the potatoes and onions I had left, and the goose. A couple of people asked if I had any more geese I might want to sell. I told several that I had extra geese, ducks, and guinea hens. I was asked to come back with more potatoes if I had them. We were going home with a lot of canned beans, tomatoes, preserves, and a young calf that just had his nuts banded. I had to give some booty for the calf, but not nearly what it could have been without trading.

Ben told me we had traded really well for a Friday at both markets and that we could probably do even better on Saturday.

The part that was fun was so many men scrambling to make a trade for the five gallons of wine. The guy with the calf told me that he would trade if I had any shine, but he didn't like wine. That was okay, as the men who wanted the wine ended up paying money, except for the man with two dozen Rhode Island Reds to get rid of. For a gallon of wine, I ended up with probably two dozen more eggs a day, and four jars of his wife's blackberry jam. The chicken house was going to have to get bigger.

It was good that we went to that market, since I had the chance to go to a Family Dollar store that was like a Wal-Mart, but smaller. I bought a big box of condoms and some lube in case the condoms were dry. I figured that with a gross of those suckers, I would not run out soon.

The ladies and Ben found a couple of items they felt they needed at the store, so we were getting ready to be checked out and leave. I kept watching Mildred squint at a lot of things, and made a mental note to ask her about that.

Tomorrow was Saturday, and I wanted to have at least a can of milk, and four or five dozen eggs, along with more of our produce. Ben said he still had a couple pounds of butter, and Mildred thought we might have about six pounds in the refrigerator.

I had plans for Saturday's market day. I needed blades for my hay mower. The old mower worked very well, but the blades were probably way over ten years old. Hopefully, the machinery parts guy would do some trading so I didn't have to use any cash. I was really into this cashless barter society.

The purpose of improving the mower was that this past summer, Teddy had to use my tractor and mower while his tractor was being worked on. So my sickle bar mower got a lot of wear. My little tractor did the mowing, and was strong and fast enough to use a power takeoff driven rake to put the hay in rows to bale. As Teddy raked, I helped unload his tractor from the Western Auto mechanic's truck. By the time Teddy had the raking completed, I had his baler hooked up to his tractor, ready to bale the hay.

Teddy's baler had two different setups. He had the wire configuration that made pretty heavy bales of near to over a hundred pounds. He also had the twine set up so he could swap to twine and those bales were for the market, but only weighed forty to fifty pounds. This year, I wanted to have the mower in good shape in order to continue the equipment swap with Teddy. That man loved my manure spreader, as I had done a little work on it so it tossed the manure in a bigger arc, making it faster to spread on the fields.

I also had a machinery list and wanted to see what else might be available. I had plans on using the bulldozer to build roads to my other remote fields and to clean out brush and trees surrounding the fields in order to increase my grain and hay crops.

The girls said they wanted to see what the other women traded, so they would know what to make or prepare.

Ben asked me to stop by his place to help him get his pigs into his truck. He was going to have two butchered and sell the other three he had. He said he didn't want to have to keep so many animals, since it was getting difficult for him to care for them. My friend and neighbor was aging. I wondered how old he really was.

Friday evening, Ben was having supper with us and there was a lot of excitement at the table. The prospect of the women going to the Saturday market and what we might be able to find was very exciting. While we were discussing the possibilities, I kept thinking of Ben selling his other three pigs. They were all the right size to butcher or sell. My thought was to make a deal with the butcher to give me the hams and bacon to smoke, along with some pork chops and loins for the freezer. He could have the rest of the three hogs for the butchering and a couple of months' rent on the food locker. I was sure he would go for that.

After Ben had gone home, it was decided that we would wash up tonight so we wouldn't take a lot of time to get ready in the morning and could get an early start for the market. Summer took a bath or shower first, then Mildred told me to shower next.

I had just got into the warm water when Mildred stepped into the shower with me. She faced me and wanted some hugs and kisses that I willingly gave her, as she stroked my eager sex. I could tell she was more than ready, but she wouldn't turn so I could enter her. She held up one of the condom packets and said, "I saw you get these. You are a good man to think it best I don't have a baby right now. We will have to keep these near the bed."

We used that condom, and it was probably a good thing, as I filled up the little bubble end so much that the extra was all down the side of the condom. When we got out of the shower, we were both very satisfied.

Summer was already in bed and ready to snuggle. When we were arranged with me on my back and a woman on each side snuggled to me, Summer asked her mother, "Momma, when will I be old enough to get close to Mike like you do?"

Oops, I guessed Summer wasn't as oblivious to our fooling around as I had thought.

"Summer, Honey, you are nineteen now, and plenty old enough to have those feelings and to enjoy what I enjoy with Mike. We will talk about this more in a couple of days and see what would be good for you."

"Thank you, Momma, lying with Mike makes me feel funny, but a good funny. My stomach gets fluttery and it makes my hips wiggle. It's really different, and I like the way it feels."

Mildred had stiffened at the original question, but was now relaxed against me as we lay still. That is, until Mildred's hand encircled my sex in my shorts and began stroking me. I leaned to kiss Mildred on the forehead and told her, "No, Mildred, let's get some sleep."

The woman gave a grunt of displeasure and snuggled up tighter, but didn't let go of her hand hold. Although I had been wonderfully satisfied earlier, my physical being was controlling my mental state. I did finally fall asleep.

Sometime during the night, we had switched about with me spooning Mildred's back. The naughty lady gave me a push with her butt and wiggled a little. With her left hand, she raised her gown before pushing my boxers down to free my rapidly growing sex. In seconds, I was buried deep in Mildred's very wet center. I guess the use of condoms was being forgotten.

Mildred rode me by pushing back and forth for a couple of dozen strokes until she quivered and shook. What she did surprised me, as she reached into the bedside table drawer and tore a condom open. Without looking, she rolled the sheath onto me and had me inside her in mere seconds.

This time she pushed and pulled slowly, enjoying the feeling of being thoroughly fucked. About her third or fourth shivering and quivering, I filled the condom.

Mildred turned to kiss me, and in a whisper, told me, "We do that very good. I'm glad I am here with you."

She pulled the condom off and dropped it on the floor at the side of the bed, but when she turned her back to me again, she slid me into her and squeezed. That wasn't going to put me to sleep.

As we were drifting back to sleep, Summer softly said, "That smell is so exciting. I want to do that, too."

Mildred didn't answer, but gave my sex a couple of squeezes.

I was awake at quarter to five, feeling very good and ready for the world. It didn't take me long to shave again and dress to do chores. As I was shaving, both women came into the bathroom to use the toilet. I don't think they thought a thing about it. Okay, I suppose this was just a natural function, so there was no need to be embarrassed.

This morning, Summer did the chickens, while Mildred milked the cow, and I fed the yearling, the two calves, and the pigs. I did the poop scooping and hosed the floor, while Mildred cleaned up the milking equipment. I put the full five gallon can into the back of the pickup, along with almost all of the balance of our sweet potatoes. I had removed all the mower blades from the sickle bar, so that if new ones were not available, I might be able to get them sharpened.

We stopped by Ben's to help him load his hogs in his stock trailer. We shook again on the deal we made for the three hogs he was selling me.

This morning, the two women were dressed as most other farm women who were at the market for normal trading were dressed. They were wearing jeans, a flannel shirt, and a heavy coat with brogans or what were really low boots. Each had her hair in a ponytail, and Summer had found one of my caps to wear. There were women in dresses there, but they were the ones with the fancy cakes, pies, and rows of canned items.

The first thing I did was to head to the machinery area. I couldn't find any new blades, but an older man, probably in his late sixties, was sharpening everything from plow shares to hand scythes. He gave me some tips how I could do this myself if I was to buy a good bench grinder.