covered horse lot, I climbed to the top of the back fence and balanced precariously near the top. A large field lay in front of me on the other side of the pond. It ran at least a quarter-mile and filled the small valley between two ridges. That had to be where the stable owners raised hay. I fisted the air in glee; we had a new home.
When I dismounted at the lodge, Richard's horse was with the other four. I took the fact that all five horses had been unburdened of their saddles and panniers to be a good sign.
Richard and Paige were on the third floor inspecting the upper rooms. Both had laid claim to second floor rooms they wanted for their families. I stealthily climbed the wide wood stairs, still getting used to the recent summertime switch from winter socks and boots to moccasins.
Richard told of the 18-hole golf course being ideal for farming and of numerous shallow lakes scattered around it. He and Paige were exuberant when they learned of the barns we could use for both horses and cows. Milking bails would need to be built to constrain the cows for hand milking and would consume a number of man-hours to complete.
On a hunch, I went to the first floor office and delved into the owner's file cabinets. Not surprisingly, I learned the house belonged to Harold Cleary, the owner of the stable across the road. It was likely he'd owned the golf course also. On the wall opposite the desk, hundreds of pictures were pinned to a custom-made cork board. On close inspection, I identified past state and federal senators and representatives plus movie and sports stars. There were even several military generals I recalled from TV news shows. Most of those were with Cleary and his family members, and the majority was of golf, or fishing or hunting trips. That explained the excessive number of bedrooms and the over-equipped kitchen. Mr. Cleary had ties to many important people.
We spent three more days exploring the area before heading home to retrieve our families and friends. During our travels, we learned game was plentiful. Besides the move itself, we were faced with a late start for planting. It was the last week of April and the acreages selected for planting hadn't been plowed for fifteen years. There was an extreme amount of work to be done in a short time by too few people. But if it could be accomplished, I had the right crew to do it.
We pushed the horses and arrived back at our soon to be abandoned homes before noon of our second day of the return trip.
I gathered the people making the move with us and told them we'd found a great new home. Paige and Richard shared their opinions on the lodge building and other features near it.
Vince stood in front of me. "Can you get the farm tractor loaded today and have it and the dump truck ready to roll in the morning?"
He grinned back at me proudly. "It's already loaded. All of the equipment batteries were replaced with new ones; they're still good because of the slow chargers Shane rigged to the remaining solar panel that feeds them. There're only two batteries left. When they die, the equipment will be useless. The fuel in the hundred gallon diesel tank in the back of the pickup was filtered and new additives were mixed in. Hopefully, its deteriorated condition won't hurt the engines before we're done moving and plowing. Another hundred gallons is prepared and loaded in fifty-five-gallon drums on the low-boy trailer with the tractor and its attachments."
I reached out and shook his hand. "Thanks for taking the lead and giving us a head start. There are about two hundred gallons of gasoline. We'll take half and leave the rest. Leave one-hundred gallons of diesel here and get the rest on our last lowboy load going out.
"We'll plan to finish our move in one week. Three farm trailers are available. One will be pulled by the pickup, the other two by four horse teams. We'll do this move the same as when we came here. On the first round of trips, eight adults and their
When I dismounted at the lodge, Richard's horse was with the other four. I took the fact that all five horses had been unburdened of their saddles and panniers to be a good sign.
Richard and Paige were on the third floor inspecting the upper rooms. Both had laid claim to second floor rooms they wanted for their families. I stealthily climbed the wide wood stairs, still getting used to the recent summertime switch from winter socks and boots to moccasins.
Richard told of the 18-hole golf course being ideal for farming and of numerous shallow lakes scattered around it. He and Paige were exuberant when they learned of the barns we could use for both horses and cows. Milking bails would need to be built to constrain the cows for hand milking and would consume a number of man-hours to complete.
On a hunch, I went to the first floor office and delved into the owner's file cabinets. Not surprisingly, I learned the house belonged to Harold Cleary, the owner of the stable across the road. It was likely he'd owned the golf course also. On the wall opposite the desk, hundreds of pictures were pinned to a custom-made cork board. On close inspection, I identified past state and federal senators and representatives plus movie and sports stars. There were even several military generals I recalled from TV news shows. Most of those were with Cleary and his family members, and the majority was of golf, or fishing or hunting trips. That explained the excessive number of bedrooms and the over-equipped kitchen. Mr. Cleary had ties to many important people.
We spent three more days exploring the area before heading home to retrieve our families and friends. During our travels, we learned game was plentiful. Besides the move itself, we were faced with a late start for planting. It was the last week of April and the acreages selected for planting hadn't been plowed for fifteen years. There was an extreme amount of work to be done in a short time by too few people. But if it could be accomplished, I had the right crew to do it.
We pushed the horses and arrived back at our soon to be abandoned homes before noon of our second day of the return trip.
I gathered the people making the move with us and told them we'd found a great new home. Paige and Richard shared their opinions on the lodge building and other features near it.
Vince stood in front of me. "Can you get the farm tractor loaded today and have it and the dump truck ready to roll in the morning?"
He grinned back at me proudly. "It's already loaded. All of the equipment batteries were replaced with new ones; they're still good because of the slow chargers Shane rigged to the remaining solar panel that feeds them. There're only two batteries left. When they die, the equipment will be useless. The fuel in the hundred gallon diesel tank in the back of the pickup was filtered and new additives were mixed in. Hopefully, its deteriorated condition won't hurt the engines before we're done moving and plowing. Another hundred gallons is prepared and loaded in fifty-five-gallon drums on the low-boy trailer with the tractor and its attachments."
I reached out and shook his hand. "Thanks for taking the lead and giving us a head start. There are about two hundred gallons of gasoline. We'll take half and leave the rest. Leave one-hundred gallons of diesel here and get the rest on our last lowboy load going out.
"We'll plan to finish our move in one week. Three farm trailers are available. One will be pulled by the pickup, the other two by four horse teams. We'll do this move the same as when we came here. On the first round of trips, eight adults and their
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