Its been almost a week, but its been really busy around here. Since the Nelson's died either Jack or I have had to make the three mile one way walk over to their yard to look in on the grain, and work on the clean up and salvage of whats left. Jack didn't want to send me, but after the second day he was so exaughsted he didn't have a choice. He'd met with the other farms, but they're all 'overcapacity' and since we have an extra set of hands, figured we should beable to handle it. Jack figures they're not thinking ahead enough - but if we can get through this year, then move the production to our own land - of which there is plenty - we should be ok.
Annabelle is still settling in, but she's a good worker, and has taken over about half of my normal morning workload so we can continue to work on the salvage. So far we've brought back two carts, a colt that walked into the yard, a few hundred pounds of feed, and seed, some preserves, and a box of what Jack called 'a happy little surprise.'
Which probably means he found something that blows up.
The Nelson's also had a battery system in place, which they charged with a hand crank. Talk about work - but I suppose it works rain, or shine. Jack wants me to see if I can haul most of the batterys home tomorrow as its my day to head over there. Today he burned horse carcasses so I'm sure its going to smell just wonderful. After the batterys, it'll just be deciding what to do with the remains of the house - which is a little shot up. Jack seems to be at a crossroads with that. He'd like to tear to place down for building material, seeing as we have a couple horses that need shelter and our own little animal shelter is woefully small for them.
But on the flip side, if a family comes through thats able to work the land, having a place for them to live would be good.
In the end though, it'll be up to him. I'm sure he'll throw my back into the labor though.
I think you should be glad that you've got labor to do, and that you'll benefit from it. It sounds as if you're doing really well lately. I'm glad to hear it.
ReplyDeleteWe have green tomatoes all over the place. It seems to be a good year for them. We can't grow wheat up here, but the corn is doing well. I guess the potatoes are alright. I can never see them grow, of course, so I never feel quite sure of them until I pull them out of the ground.
Instead of wheat, our 'cash crop' is fish, which my father brings in on his boat. Why is it called 'cash crop'? What's cash? Maybe I'll ask Grandma later on.
Grandma has been a little strange lately. I was able to sneak online again because she is out front talking to someone from that gang that you say are thugs, and you might not be far off. I don't know why he's come back. We paid our dues already. Whatever it is, she doesn't seem worried, exactly, just kind of weird.
I'll be happy when my father is back.