Chapter 6

Todd read the piece of paper I had given him. It was a copy of the bill of sale for the ranch.

“I won’t believe it until I hear it from Mr. Holland,” he said, balling up the piece of paper and throwing it at me.

“Suit yourself,” I said. “You can call him if you like. If you want to work, I’ll continue your pay at the same rate you agreed to with Mr. Holland.”

Slim had taken the news much easier. In fact, Todd’s reaction had caused a smile on his face.

“Hey Todd,” Slim said. “Ever changed your boss’ diaper?” He let out one of his laughs. I had to chuckle along with him.

“There are some things I want to try,” I told them. “I want to see about getting pumps installed to irrigate the pastures. Until then, I’d like you to keep rotating the cattle from field to field. The more they overgraze a field, the harder it will be to re-establish the pasture. Also, I want to supplement the pastures with hay.”

“This is summer,” Todd snapped. “Why waste hay in the summer. We need to save it for winter.”

“For the reason I said. I want to save the fields from overgrazing.”

I went up to the plateau I had selected to be the site of my home and looked it over before heading to the bunkhouse. The first thing I needed to do was make sure I could get water at the site. Slim gave me the name of a well drilling company and I gave them a call. The owner had a crew just finishing up on a job and could start drilling on Wednesday.

I then called the contractor I had spoken to earlier and told him I would like to erect a building for hay storage. I gave him the size I wanted and he said he could start immediately since the building wouldn’t need water or electricity. He estimated it would take two to three weeks to complete.

I called the rancher who had purchased Mr. Blanton’s ranch back in North Carolina and asked where he was buying his hay. He told me he had sold the majority of his cattle and had hay left over from last year. I knew he would want to get rid of the hay so his barns would be empty for the hay he cut this year. After some negotiations, we agreed on a price. He said he had several large flatbed trailers and would haul it to Texas. Again, we agreed on a price for shipping.

One of the books the contractor had given me showed pictures and drawings of log homes. I found one I liked but also knew I wanted to make changes. It only had a single car garage and I wanted space for three vehicles. I would probably never own three vehicles but the extra space would give me somewhere to work if needed. I also wanted to build a building in back to smoke and cure meat. I’d remembered going to my granddad’s house when I was little and he would have various pieces of meat hanging to cure. He would always have beef jerky he had cured himself and I could never find any in stores that compared.

The well drilling company showed up early Wednesday morning and started the well. It was Friday evening and three hundred and twelve feet deep before they found a good flow of water.

It was actually the owner and his crew who drilled the well. While speaking to him I learned that water was a very precious commodity in this area. He said farmers as well as some businesses would pay to have water delivered. I told him water seemed to be plentiful on the southern part of the ranch and he asked if he could do some testing. I agreed and he said he would begin the testing on Monday.

Monday morning, I met with the contractor and showed him the plan I had selected. He said the changes would not be a problem but pointed out the plan had very little storage. He flipped over a few pages and showed me another drawing that was very similar but had more storage as well as a two car garage. This drawing was almost four thousand square feet. He said his crew had built this house recently in another city and he already had the blue prints for the home. Expanding the garage to three cars would not be a problem. He said it would take about a week to get the permits in place but planned to start moving equipment on site within the next few days.

I told him I wanted to get the house started but didn’t want to delay the completion of the hay barn. He said the crew building the house would be different from the crew building the barn and there should be no delays.

I asked Slim if he knew where I could find two gentle ponies. I told him they would be for Will and April and I planned to keep them at the ranch. He called a friend who said he thought he had exactly what I was looking for. The next day I hooked up the trailer and the two of us went to check them out. He had several to pick from and I settled on a larger buckskin pony for Will and a smaller black pony for April. I also bought saddles and tack.

About a week later I was out riding Blaze and Will and April were riding their ponies. We ran into Mr. Russell, the well drilling owner. He said the ranch was over an aqua-flow that could supply the city of Dallas.

“What does that mean,” I asked him.

“Another words, you’re literally sitting on a gold mine,” he said. “All you’d have to do is drill a couple dozen wells and contract with a company to carry the water to the buyer.”