Jeepcats27
Senior Member
Karma has a way of catching up with idiots! Thank you Kathy!
Story Broken Yet Rising
- Thread starter Kathy in FL
- Start date
Chapter 81
There’s still no news of Felicia. There’s honestly not a lot of news coming out of NYC period. What news there is is grim. There is a long list of confirmed dead. There is another long list of confirmed ill, but no information of whether they are recovering or not. There is an even longer list is of the John and Jane Does, unidentified bodies. The longest list is of those missing and unaccounted for. It is the only list that Felicia’s name appears on. Her family sent her dental records to the feds who are the ones operating the hospitals and mortuaries holding the contaminated bodies. It is a gruesome process, but thus far, after the first pass, Felicia has not been identified. They are digitizing all bodies, live or dead, for proper identification. All we know for sure is that she wasn’t in the initial group of die-offs. One worry Mr. Musgrove expressed to Derek is that Felicia crawled into a hole someplace for safety and imagined security. It could be a long time before she is found and identified if that is what happened.
Derek and I have talked. We’re pretty sure it wasn’t supposed to happen. It was either a crazy person doing what crazy people do, or it was an accident where however the bomb went off it wasn’t the plan. Or wasn’t a plan at that time.
The only good thing that has come from it is that the world seems to be in pause mode. All of the major players are in shock. Oh there are a few of the expected players treating it like a sign from God or something else just as nauseating but by and large it is causing people to back up and think about where the war is going. I suppose a similar thing happened when the US bombed Japan to end WW2. But that was intentional, NYC just doesn’t feel intentional. And a lot of high value people died in the explosion either as UN Diplomats or as high-ranking politicians and “refugees” being housed and protected within the walls of the UN to escape the turmoil in their own country.
Yeah, some people around the world tried to say that the US did it but with a multi-national investigation ongoing, it appears that the bomb was already on the grounds of the UN and was likely there for years. This may not be the time to be snarky so I don’t let my thoughts from behind my teeth, but I can’t help but think they brought it on themselves.
What happened in NYC isn’t the only thing that has the world thinking. The crazy dictator-god in North Korea and his even crazier sister are reaching their expiration date and there are no heirs. Well there are, the ones that survived their childhood, but they really aren’t dictator-gods-for-life material. Not that their father and aunt want to let them. And there’s rumors and rumors of rumors that the crazies-in-charge-of-the-asylum plan on setting off all of their nuclear arsenal in retribution for not being allowed to live forever as gods-in-fact and not just their megalomania. People are saying something needs to be done. I’d like to know what and by whom and who would be expected to clean up the mess left behind.
And as Dad and Mitchell used to talk about, if all that noise is being made over there, what is it being used as a distraction for over here? I hate politics, I just don’t have the personality for it, especially not the patience for people’s stupidity part. I have a hard enough time just dealing with the stupidity that I do.
Somehow or other, probably good intentions, the information that Felicia was in NYC got around. Someone from the prayer chain - I guess Mrs. Padfield put Felicia on it - then told it to someone outside of church and it spread like an STD from there. I finally had to ask Derek to just let me field all of his calls, including and especially the ones from his cell.
“Derek Musgrove’s office.”
“I’d like to speak to Derek.”
“He’s unavailable at the moment. May I take a message?”
Most of them were just people wanting to check on him but there were a few that were nosey and some that were just plain rude.
“How is he feeling? How would you feel under the circumstances?”
Some of Felicia’s friends could be downright mean and I let them have it right back.
“The day I find that you are sitting around in sack cloth and ashes will be the only day you’ll have the right to say jack squat. If you are so ever loving concerned, you drive up to NYC and see what it gets you.” I slammed down the phone and looked at it with death rays and said, “Idiot. He’s got a boy to look after and clients that are counting on him. Felicia chose her path when she turned her back on her responsibilities to just play around instead of grow up.”
Luckily there weren’t any clients in the waiting area. Unluckily I felt someone leaning on my arm where I was sitting at the front desk.
“Sorry Daniel. My mouth ran over.”
He shrugged. “Her friends were all stupid. Uncle Derek isn’t going to leave me.”
“No he isn’t, but even if he has to do some things some times, you know ….”
Then Knox being Knox said, “Doober Dude, what are we? Chopped liver? Which is gross because I’ve had to eat that stuff before. Let’s go MOC something and leave the stupid people to be stupid. Then Mina’ll blast ‘em righteously and they’ll leave use alone.”
Daniel agreed and while he has been a little more sober than he once was, I think God is protecting him by putting a shield around him and only so much gets through. The twins were the same way after Mom and Dad were murdered by that hell-bound terrorist.
Last night I did something I didn’t plan or intend on doing.
“Tess… and Doug…, if you get this message you don’t need to call me back. I’m coming to terms with the way things went. So are the twins. I may not agree with how they ended but I do understand about toxicity and needing a new start and all the rest of it. But that’s not why I called. I just wanted to let you know that — despite it all — family is family and … look, NYC and Doug’s travels and stuff … just be careful. Keep two weeks of food and water on hand at all times. Do that stuff that we did for hurricane preparedness even though you don’t live near that anymore. Just … be careful. And… we’re thinking about you and the littles.”
I hung up the phone and then debated and then left their number off block. I don’t expect to hear from either one of them, not after some of the things I found out, but if you are going to call yourself to be and do better, including being the better person, you have to follow through on that in all things or you aren’t anything but a hypocrite. There’s already way too much of that stuff running around the world to add to it.
There’s still no news of Felicia. There’s honestly not a lot of news coming out of NYC period. What news there is is grim. There is a long list of confirmed dead. There is another long list of confirmed ill, but no information of whether they are recovering or not. There is an even longer list is of the John and Jane Does, unidentified bodies. The longest list is of those missing and unaccounted for. It is the only list that Felicia’s name appears on. Her family sent her dental records to the feds who are the ones operating the hospitals and mortuaries holding the contaminated bodies. It is a gruesome process, but thus far, after the first pass, Felicia has not been identified. They are digitizing all bodies, live or dead, for proper identification. All we know for sure is that she wasn’t in the initial group of die-offs. One worry Mr. Musgrove expressed to Derek is that Felicia crawled into a hole someplace for safety and imagined security. It could be a long time before she is found and identified if that is what happened.
Derek and I have talked. We’re pretty sure it wasn’t supposed to happen. It was either a crazy person doing what crazy people do, or it was an accident where however the bomb went off it wasn’t the plan. Or wasn’t a plan at that time.
The only good thing that has come from it is that the world seems to be in pause mode. All of the major players are in shock. Oh there are a few of the expected players treating it like a sign from God or something else just as nauseating but by and large it is causing people to back up and think about where the war is going. I suppose a similar thing happened when the US bombed Japan to end WW2. But that was intentional, NYC just doesn’t feel intentional. And a lot of high value people died in the explosion either as UN Diplomats or as high-ranking politicians and “refugees” being housed and protected within the walls of the UN to escape the turmoil in their own country.
Yeah, some people around the world tried to say that the US did it but with a multi-national investigation ongoing, it appears that the bomb was already on the grounds of the UN and was likely there for years. This may not be the time to be snarky so I don’t let my thoughts from behind my teeth, but I can’t help but think they brought it on themselves.
What happened in NYC isn’t the only thing that has the world thinking. The crazy dictator-god in North Korea and his even crazier sister are reaching their expiration date and there are no heirs. Well there are, the ones that survived their childhood, but they really aren’t dictator-gods-for-life material. Not that their father and aunt want to let them. And there’s rumors and rumors of rumors that the crazies-in-charge-of-the-asylum plan on setting off all of their nuclear arsenal in retribution for not being allowed to live forever as gods-in-fact and not just their megalomania. People are saying something needs to be done. I’d like to know what and by whom and who would be expected to clean up the mess left behind.
And as Dad and Mitchell used to talk about, if all that noise is being made over there, what is it being used as a distraction for over here? I hate politics, I just don’t have the personality for it, especially not the patience for people’s stupidity part. I have a hard enough time just dealing with the stupidity that I do.
Somehow or other, probably good intentions, the information that Felicia was in NYC got around. Someone from the prayer chain - I guess Mrs. Padfield put Felicia on it - then told it to someone outside of church and it spread like an STD from there. I finally had to ask Derek to just let me field all of his calls, including and especially the ones from his cell.
“Derek Musgrove’s office.”
“I’d like to speak to Derek.”
“He’s unavailable at the moment. May I take a message?”
Most of them were just people wanting to check on him but there were a few that were nosey and some that were just plain rude.
“How is he feeling? How would you feel under the circumstances?”
Some of Felicia’s friends could be downright mean and I let them have it right back.
“The day I find that you are sitting around in sack cloth and ashes will be the only day you’ll have the right to say jack squat. If you are so ever loving concerned, you drive up to NYC and see what it gets you.” I slammed down the phone and looked at it with death rays and said, “Idiot. He’s got a boy to look after and clients that are counting on him. Felicia chose her path when she turned her back on her responsibilities to just play around instead of grow up.”
Luckily there weren’t any clients in the waiting area. Unluckily I felt someone leaning on my arm where I was sitting at the front desk.
“Sorry Daniel. My mouth ran over.”
He shrugged. “Her friends were all stupid. Uncle Derek isn’t going to leave me.”
“No he isn’t, but even if he has to do some things some times, you know ….”
Then Knox being Knox said, “Doober Dude, what are we? Chopped liver? Which is gross because I’ve had to eat that stuff before. Let’s go MOC something and leave the stupid people to be stupid. Then Mina’ll blast ‘em righteously and they’ll leave use alone.”
Daniel agreed and while he has been a little more sober than he once was, I think God is protecting him by putting a shield around him and only so much gets through. The twins were the same way after Mom and Dad were murdered by that hell-bound terrorist.
Last night I did something I didn’t plan or intend on doing.
“Tess… and Doug…, if you get this message you don’t need to call me back. I’m coming to terms with the way things went. So are the twins. I may not agree with how they ended but I do understand about toxicity and needing a new start and all the rest of it. But that’s not why I called. I just wanted to let you know that — despite it all — family is family and … look, NYC and Doug’s travels and stuff … just be careful. Keep two weeks of food and water on hand at all times. Do that stuff that we did for hurricane preparedness even though you don’t live near that anymore. Just … be careful. And… we’re thinking about you and the littles.”
I hung up the phone and then debated and then left their number off block. I don’t expect to hear from either one of them, not after some of the things I found out, but if you are going to call yourself to be and do better, including being the better person, you have to follow through on that in all things or you aren’t anything but a hypocrite. There’s already way too much of that stuff running around the world to add to it.
Mr Bill
Veteran Member
The Great Uncle's farm where I spent summers had a Screened porch the I used to fall asleep on. Boy was that a long time ago. The last time I drove by they had torn down the grand old Victorian farmhouse . There had been no Family to leave it to. When it got really hot we would jump in the stock tank, which was spring fed and really cold but at 12 or so I could take it. Today it just might kill me.
I haven't tried it, but I have heard you can singe the stickers off. YMMV
sssarawolf
Has No Life - Lives on TB
Very big thank you.
Griz3752
Retired, practising Curmudgeon
I hear that!The Great Uncle's farm where I spent summers had a Screened porch the I used to fall asleep on. Boy was that a long time ago. The last time I drove by they had torn down the grand old Victorian farmhouse . There had been no Family to leave it to. When it got really hot we would jump in the stock tank, which was spring fed and really cold but at 12 or so I could take it. Today it just might kill me.
The diaphragm can only absorb so much of that kind of shock before it slaps the living hell out of the heart!
I have a couple of thick towels and a large mug of bush tea (North of 40 variety) if you need it . . .
Chapter 82
The MOC of the month of August has been the Roman Colosseum. The unit? Ancient Rome. The boys got a kick out of being Gladiators. Nat liked the crafts we did, especially the togas on the day it turned windy, and the boys finally learned how irritating and embarrassing a dress on such a day can be. Me? I’ve been finding my niche is a lot closer to Mom’s choices in life than I thought, just with more emotional control and not going in so many different directions at once. I am going in a lot of directions, just not as frenetically as Mom and Memaw did it. I still want to do something as a career outside the home, I’m just not sure what … and not sure that it may not have to wait until after the caballeros don’t need me the same way.
I haven’t gotten as many calls to help people clean off their trees and fence rows, but I figure with groceries being the way they are people are less willing, or less able, to barter that way. I know the food pantry at the church is non-existent and the “stone soup” dinner on the grounds every Sunday is more like a burgoo or thick vegetable soup with a variety of meats added served over rice with a slice of cornbread. Sometimes it is grits and one time it was even barley, but it is rice most of the time. However, it isn’t always white rice. Sometimes it is brown, sometimes yellow, sometime Spanish and sometimes it is a combination of all the above and the rice looks kinda weird, especially when wild rice or black rice gets mixed in. It looks a bit like confetti.
Instead of a regular paycheck, the church is now paying the pastor in meals and upkeep and some of the elderly are getting our version of “meals on church wheels” when we find out any of them are in dire need and we can’t hook them up with any kind of public program, which is most of the time though the commodities program puts at-risk elderly and young children at the head of the list of donations.
Duff knows who he can go to if he hears about a serious, legitimate need while on his shifts. I’ve still got a barn full of Musgrove junk that comes in handy, and I give Martin full credit for his craziness. And Deacon Duff knows who he can come to if it is a matter of food for the elderly, the pastor, or the Sunday dinners. It isn’t meat - some of the cattle and pig farms around here occasionally have an animal “come up lame and need putting down” but for fruit and veggies we donate our share.
As difficult as things going on in the world were, August has been bountiful as recompense. In the veggie department there’s a never-ending supply of beans. Bush beans, pole beans, scarlet runner beans, winged beans, fresh beans, dried beans, purple hulls, yellow wax, tiger eye orange beans, black beans, and the tail end of my fresh black-eyed peas. Peppers of every shape, size, color, and heat; red, green, yellow, orange, long, short, fat, skinny, stubby, and even some midget round things that had Derek running for the glass of ginger milk I’d fixed him in preparation for what was obviously coming. One of those “hold my beer” moments between father and son.
I was surprised to meet Derek’s father last week at the law office. A man was persistently knocking at the door and I told him that unfortunately I didn’t have the authority to let him in without an appointment.
“I’m here to see my brother and son.”
I’m puzzling that one out when I hear, “Psst. That’s Peepaw.”
I’m thinking crap and wanting to call for Derek only he’s at the courthouse. Luckily Mrs. Padfield was there that day because Mr. Barnes had insisted on “coming to work.”
I hold up a finger to the man and told Daniel, “Run upstairs and get your aunt. Just don’t break your neck doing it. Nat? Can you tell me what’s left in the fridge?”
A moment later I hear Mrs. Padfield coming down the stairs saying, “My goodness. What next?”
Apparently something else had been creating a situation for her but she looked composed when she came into the reception area and told me, “Go ahead Honey. David doesn’t bite, not usually. I’ll keep my broom handy just in case however.”
Her brother went from grumpy-faced to a slow grin as I unlocked the door and apologized.
“Had problems?” He asked me.
“Are there crazy people in the world?” Was my answer and then I winced but he just nodded and kept smiling.
I turned to Mrs. Padfield and asked, “Upstairs or down?”
“Up. James is … not having a good day.”
“How about refreshments?”
“Whatever you can manage Honey.”
I made sure the door was locked and hurried into the break room while pulling out my phone to text Derek and warn him.
I asked Daniel to help me carry up the refreshments to see whether his grandfathered wanted a visit, but Daniel asked, “Can Knox come with me?”
What I would have said to that I never got the chance to decide because Mr. Taylor’s appointment arrived and she was a loud, blousy woman with definite attention expectations. “Oh good grief. Knox, you take what I was going to carry. Nat go with them to make sure they don’t bring down the roof on everyone.”
I was no sooner finished getting Mrs. High-On-the-Hog Dupont of the Savannah Duponts settled in with Taylor and a tea tray with a few finger sandwiches I made especially to keep her mouth full so Taylor could get a word in edgewise than Derek rushes in looking panicked.
I just pointed upstairs and grabbed the next incoming call.
# # # # # # # # # #
All’s well that ends well and I suppose it was a good thing that I’d brought the peppers in for Mrs. Padfield to try as rodent control. David Musgrove is nothing at all like his son. He reminds me a bit of Pooh Bear. I expected him to start singing the Honey Song when he realized he could eat as many of the peppers and pickles as he wanted. I sent him on his way with the remainder of the jar in a plastic butter dish that was likely empty and dry as a bone before he got where he was going. The man even drinks pickle juice. Gak me.
Derek brought him downstairs after Mr. Barnes fell asleep in the middle of their conversation. You could tell Mr. Musgrove was deeply affected by his brother’s condition.
“I wasn’t putting two and two together. Wasn’t listening son. And this is better than he was?”
“Dad? I’d like you to meet Mina Musgrove.”
“Musgrove?” The confusion had to be cleared up and it was a good distraction that gave the man time to compose himself.
It was no more than thirty minutes later that Nat comes out to tell me about the pepper eating “contest.” Well, there was no contest. Derek loves him some hot peppers, but his father does too and has years of experience on him. While they didn’t declare a winner, I declared them both a little silly.
And for a turn at the weirder and even more unexpected, turns out that Derek’s father had met mine a couple of times at the auction house in Beachville. He remembers Mitchell too because he was the youngest bidder there on some items … one was a set of Confederacy Memorial plates by Lenox that had gone for a song and is now worth almost most of the cost of a semester at community college.
“I still have them. He bought them for me for my birthday. And yes, the Musgrove crazy runs long and deep in our veins even if we didn’t live around here full time.”
That he had a real laugh at but they turned serious for a bit on a discussion that centered on Felicia.
feralferret
Veteran Member
Thanks, Kathy!
Chapter 83
Bottom line is that there is still no news about Felicia, but the feds say it is possible that she evacuated by water. The Canadian government got a bunch of them that were on a barge and there are also now reports of a lot of boats, ships, and yachts appear to have rescued people and headed up and down the Eastern seaboard. The problem is that not all the boats made it to safe harbor as the people on board became too ill or were refused and turned away. Some of the smallest of those are still being located - and you can imagine what rescuers find - because they are small enough to escape radar detection out in international waters. They are now using satellites to scour the ocean for even the smallest ship. It is a new avenue for possibly finding Felicia one way or the other, a ray of hope, but it also seems a little cruel.
“Um … Derek …” I tried to start a conversation on it that night.
“I know Mina. Dad just needs … something. Some kind of answer. Or what they call closure. And I need it for Daniel. I don’t necessarily expect that answer to be a fairytale.”
I sighed. “I know I’m coming off a little mean …”
“No. Just realistic. I’m just …”. He petered off and looked out the window where the kids were sitting in a screen room, I’d just finished adding onto the wrap around porch the weekend before. They were out there in their bathing suits with spritz bottles full of water and eucalyptus. It was a way for them to cool down before bed without getting eaten alive by the bitey bugs.
“Just don’t let my ‘realistic’ depress you. I just know how much it hurts not to be able to change people being gone.”
“Speaking of … did she ever call?”
I rolled my eyes. “Never expected her to. I didn’t do it to force her hand, but because my conscience forced mine. I won’t regret doing the right thing, but I’m not waiting around for her to do it.” Then I squirted him with my own spritz bottle, catching him by surprise. Then he squirted me, and by the time it was time for all of us to go to bed the kids had joined the battle and we’d been running around the porch enough that even the mosquitoes likely thought we were mad as March hares in August.
Everyone else traipsed off to sleep but I had a little more work to do. I’ve started an inventory like I had when I first moved to the Homeplace. I completely let that one go, but I realized I shouldn’t have when I tried to make a budget for the coming months after Derek asked me if I had any idea what it would take to keep house for a year. Geez, I got such a headache trying to rework the old budget that I decided just to start all over and if I was going to do that, I needed to start a new inventory as well.
In addition to all the beans and peppers coming out of the garden I was also getting lots of different cucumbers - some that had to be eaten fresh and some that could be used for yet more pickles. I had almost more tomatoes[1] than I could do anything with; grape tomatoes, beefsteak tomatoes, cherry tomatoes, cocktail tomatoes, Roma tomatoes, and heirloom tomatoes some of which look alien. Quite a few different melons, not just cantaloupes, honeydews, and watermelons. The peanuts are almost overshooting my ability to keep up with them and I took about fifty pounds to church one Sunday and said they fell off a truck and to hush up about it.
Mom’s trees and bushes are a lifesaver and make those meals of just “beans and rice” more interesting though Taylor, nor anyone else, is really to know. The Hood pear trees give plenty. The raspberry hedges are still giving even when by rights I thought they should be all give out. I still find passionfruit vines along the pasture area putting off fruit … at least where the cows can’t get at them and trample them or cover them in cow patties. The mulberry trees have more than I’ve ever seen them have and as a result the wild turkeys are getting really fat. I have my land posted “No Hunting” because I don’t want crazy, hungry people to shoot across it. As a result Mr. Dunst says my property, including the solar farm, is becoming a haven for animals like deer and wild turkey. I’m fine with that, he said he’ll show me how to trap during the right season, I just don’t want to become a target at any point.
I found a peacock in the orchard … yes you read that correct … but I quickly turned him over to the local petting zoo along with the two peahens he was trying to impress. Them are some nasty birds … in habit and personality … and I didn’t want them teaching my chickens to be anymore cantankerous than they can occasionally be.
The Marionberry hedge, elderberries, muscadine grapes, pineapple pears, yellow horse apples, Seckel pears, Kieffer pears, pink apples, and Belle peaches round out the non-tropical fruits planted directly in the ground. The tropicals that are in the hoop house are producing as well, especially after I repaired the water misting system so that each pot had their own sprayer to go with their own circle of drip hose. It saves water and I don’t have to do anymore additional watering in there. Like a dang sauna as it is. This month we got atemoyas, bale fruit, Barbados cherries, the main harvest of the strawberry guavas along with the pineapple guavas. The Jamaican cherries are still giving a respectable crop given that it is getting root bound and needs a much larger pot to grow in. Same for the jujube. The button mangosteens did really well for their size. The kei apples did so-so but it was still something new we didn’t have. The two dragonfruit cactus I am going to have to move to a hoop house all their own. They’re going nuts and I’m tired of backing into them and trying to figure out how to dig out cactus spikes from ridiculous places. Same for the prickly pear.
Another trip to the State Farmers Market yielded avocados, coconuts, carambola, regular guavas, mangos, mushrooms, garlic, onions, bananas, pineapples, and pomegranates. The bananas that weren’t eaten fresh were freeze dried and sealed in jars rather than bags because those bags are getting harder to get. I’m going to have to be more careful. I made the mistake of making a loaf of banana bread and taking it to work and everyone wanted to know where I’d gotten the bananas and nuts to make it. “Banana flavoring,” I told them and the nuts having to be used out of a tail end of some I’d bought Christmas before last. The men just shrugged but Mrs. Padfield knew I was telling a story, so I snuck her in a bag of freeze dried fruit and nuts. I winked, she snickered, and all was well. Still need to watch that however.
Taylor asked me to please (I nearly passed out) see if I could pick him up some garlic and onions when I go to the farmers market and when I brought him back a long string of both you would have thought I’d found his missing child or something. If I had known that would sweeten his disposition that much, I would have done it before. Derek laughed when I told him how I watched the man carrying them out to his car after the office closed like he was carrying a new baby.
I picked the last of the dried black-eyed peas and I hope they last until next year because they are hard to find in the grocery store, even here in the Deep South which most people consider to be a scandal. I’m now glad I planted so many rows of them. In their place, and in the place of other things that have given out, I planted bush beans, pole beans, sweet corn, popcorn, cucumbers, peppers, pumpkin, summer squash, winter squash, tomatoes, watermelons, collards, onions, turnips. I don’t have the green thumb that Mom and Memaw did, but I do a respectable job and feeding the family is one less worry I have.
[1] The Complete Guide To Every Type Of Tomato | Nature Fresh Farms
Jeepcats27
Senior Member
Thank you for the new chapters!
Growers, put a bib on before opening and give your money cards to someone you trust.
www.totallytomato.com
Totally Tomatoes: Tomatoes, Peppers, Vegetables & More
Totally Tomatoes is family owned & operated. We are a leading supplier of non-GMO, heirloom, vegetable plants & seeds, herbs, fruit, and supplies.
www.totallytomato.com
sssarawolf
Has No Life - Lives on TB
Thank you, I got to read before the company gets up 
Chapter 84
Derek has been drafted.
No, that wasn’t a mistake in my handwriting or spelling no matter how shaky it has made my hands. He’s been drafted by the medical board, and he has to give two days a week to man an emergency medical station … like an outpatient triage center. On a third day he goes on emergency calls like to wrecks and farm accidents. Just about anything else, people must transport themselves. It is the only way to address the triage orders the country is now under. In other words, get stupid and get in a bar fight and get stabbed? You better have good friends willing to risk being out after curfew or your number is up. Your kid falls off his bike and wasn’t wearing the legally required helmet and knee/elbow pads? You are going to be taking them to the emergency room yourself and sitting for however long it takes to be processed after non-triaged patients get seen. It sucks but that’s the way it goes when there aren’t enough medical staff and medicines to go around.
Mr. Dayton was furious for a few days and acting like Derek did it on purpose. He even had the gall to say maybe he just didn’t need to come into the office at all, that he could be replaced. It was one of Mr. Barnes’ good days and they were having an official meeting, and I was there as the paralegal/clerk/receptionist/computer tech/note taker/refreshment provider so I heard it all firsthand.
Everyone was pretty aghast, even Taylor. His hero was showing his butt. Well, I then showed I had one of a pretty good size as well. “Well maybe you don’t need me either. Good luck getting those way too many clients your office is taking credit for seen by anyone and then finding someone to chase them down and actually pay their bills you let them run up without a retainer.”
“Harrumph!” That was the sound Mr. Barnes made, but it wasn’t at me. The large and in charge Mr. Barnes was on deck. He turned to me and asked, “Mina, please step outside. The partners need to have a further discussion on some matters.”
I got up and left without another word. It was either that or let Mr. Dayton in on the fact that he wasn’t the demigod he occasionally acted like he thought he was.
It took two hours, and Mr. Barnes wasn’t looking good by the end of it, but apparently things were worked out. Sort of. Mr. Dayton is sending a receptionist for me to train, and I went down to two days a week. Derek was furious.
“Relax. I’ll be in the office only when you are. No more Saturday office hours no matter how Dayton wants to try and squeeze things in. And he’s going to figure out that no ‘receptionist’ is going to be able to do what I do because they won’t be able to sign for things at the courthouse, fill out most of the filings, and Taylor is going to realize that he’s going to have to do even more of his own law clerking. And on the days I am there I’m going to make sure the the hours are billed correctly.”
Derek looked at me then blinked. “Why you little hellcat.”
“I won’t see you and Mr. Barnes hurt by Dayton’s play, but he’s going to learn that while he is a good lawyer, he sucks at business. He’s squeezing the books too much and billing the wrong kind of hours. He’s going to get the firm in trouble if he keeps this up much longer. I’ve already heard a few of the out-of-town clients threatening to make complaints. You don’t charge a senior partner’s hours for law clerk grunt work. And you don’t charge my hours doing grunt work, as if a lawyer is taking credit for it.”
“Mina, that’s a serious accusation.”
I grabbed my laptop and showed him the hours Dayton’s office was charging and the type they were. “You see where his office is taking credit regardless of whether his staff or office is the one that sees the client. All that matters is the office that originated the case. We only get credit for local customers and that’s only because I went into the system his office manager set up and changed the codes when I catch it. For the moment he has plausible deniability that the system in use heavily favors his offices and staff … both Tallahassee and Jacksonville … but he won’t as soon as Taylor reads the report I’m about to create that he’s not receiving payment for all of the clients he brought with him. Dayton’s offices are now taking full credit for all of those even though Taylor is still the one they are seeing.”
Derek looked at me like he wasn’t sure what to say so I just asked. “Are you trying to not ask me to do this?”
“Uh uh,” he said shaking his head. “I’m putting in permanent memory to never make an enemy out of you. You play for keeps.”
“White man speak the truth Kemosabe. Or pick a more politically correct way to say it if you need to. I’m loyal to you and Mr. Barnes. Taylor just gets a side benefit of that. Dayton? I just lost a bunch of respect for him today and I’m about done being his doormat because today just proved that’s all I am to him. I like my job; however, I won’t necessarily continue to do it if Dayton makes a play for senior partner and wins. Or let’s put it this way, I won’t do that job for him. There are other law offices in this area … including setting you up in your own so you can take the cases you prefer on a part time basis so you can volunteer or whatever it is you want to do in emergency services.”
He took a while to say anything. “You’d … you’d settle for that?”
“I don’t see it as settling. My dad used to work two jobs, one he wanted to and one he had to. The one he had to was in financial services. It paid the check that allowed him to build up the job he wanted to do, was investing on his own for himself and his family. Mom worked part time selling crafts and being a seamstress until they could afford for Dad to do his own business full time. What I mean is you have a dream, you know what it is, together we can figure out how to get there. I don’t consider that to be settling, I consider that to be mutual … support or whatever you want to call it … mostly loyalty. When I figure out what I want to do I’m sure you’ll help me. We’ll figure it out when we’ve got more answers. For now, I need you to tell me if you are going to be in danger at this draft position or whatever it is going to be called, or if there is something you are going to need like a bag o’ food, uniforms, what? I have no clue. And do you know what your hours are going to be.”
He slowly shook his head. “I don’t know if I’m crazy, or lucky, or crazy lucky. How can you just act like …”. He lost his words again and in frustration scratched his head.
“You know how you know how to bring me down outta the trees when I’m close to popping off? You know how you are there for me on days I don’t know how I’m going to get from Point A to Point B without taking a chainsaw to the idiots of the world? You know how you sit with me in the dark when … when memories wanna get the better of me no matter how tired you have to be? Well that’s how I can ‘just’. If being me, so that you can be you, and all that means for me, then I can ‘just’ to the end of time because it means I get what and who I need. You.”
Some mushy stuff proceeded that I have no intention on sharing. But I will say that having your nose tickled by chest hair is not as gross as it sounds on the surface, especially when you are being held by strong arms and listening to someone’s heartbeat that you are the cause for it going ninety to nothing at the same time.
SairieBelle
Member
This. This is what love is.
Jeepcats27
Senior Member
really nice chapter! Thank you, Kathy!
sssarawolf
Has No Life - Lives on TB
A few minutes down from being a gofer and etc. Thanks a lot.
Chapter 85
Yes, Derek’s job in EMS is occasionally dangerous. Thus far he has sustained no injuries but not all his fellow draftees can say the same thing. Luckily for him he doesn’t have to abide by the Hippocratic oath, and he has a mean left hook that people don’t expect a man with an eyepatch on that side to have.
I have to keep myself busy on the days he is in the field. I leave the scanner on when the caballeros aren’t around, especially Daniel who can get at least as obsessive as me about it. Something else I found out is that Knox has been jury-rigging the old cell phones that I had given him and Nat way back when. He and Nat would find unused “minutes cards” at the foreclosures and were using them to load minutes onto those phones.
“Who have you been calling?”
“No one. Honest. You can even look at the phones and see no outgoing phone calls except one test call on each phone. Just …”
“Just what?”
“Like you told us, they are for just in case, not toys to play with and MOC. I just thought it was a good idea. I’m looking after Nat and Daniel.”
“You’re … ?” Then I stopped. “Yes you are. And maybe I don’t say it enough but thank you for doing it. Just don’t … don’t …”
“It’s okay Mina. Nat has told me not to grow up too fast and to still be a kid; not to leave her behind. I get it. And she says it would make you feel bad if you do all you do and I don’t know how to say it like she can but … I won’t forget and waste what you gave up for us. I just want to help and do what Mitchell and Dad would expect me to do.
Wow. Maybe I am doing something right. I hope that I am and that the family is as proud of my siblings as I am. Of course, they can still drive me crazy but maybe I need that to remind me of stuff. Geez, what a nose-blower of a situation life is on some days.
The new receptionist calls me several times a day and all I can tell her is to tell Dayton that she isn’t legally authorized to do what he wants so it will have to wait until a day I am in the office … unless of course he wants to hire another law clerk or paralegal to do it. She complains that she’s expected to make coffee or buy it and bring it in. I tell her it is what I did before Dayton changed things up. She says that Taylor wants all her attention. I tell her it is part of the job. She says the clients don’t like her. I tell her they don’t know her and that yeah, Dayton seems to send the crankier clients our way so that he doesn’t have to deal with them. She complains she isn’t getting paid enough and that it’s different “out here in the boonies” than it is in Tallahassee where she could do most of her job virtually. I tell her she’s making more money than I ever have and still not doing half what I did. She looks horrified. I laugh at her naiveté. I’m kinda thinking that she’s not going to last.
What I’m not making at the law offices I’m more than making up “piddling.” The garden is doing gangbusters. Everything I harvested in August plus even more here in September. Add to that cabbage and broccoli, pumpkins, persimmons, and something called pawpaws (which just must be a joke God is playing on the human race). Mom planted those trees the first year she and Dad inherited the Homeplace. The zucchini, purple top turnips, and yellow crookneck squash are producing so many I’ve had to start freeze drying them because not even the church ladies can hide anymore in the Stone Soup. There have been enough jalapeños coming in that Derek was able to hand off a bag to Mr. David who treated it like a gift on Father’s Day. I also sent along a box that had tomatoes, onions, and garlic in it to sweeten Lorena up and get her off Derek’s back for “leaving law and going back to being an ambulance driver.”
“I’m beginning to see her appeal,” I told Derek after fielding one such call. He laughed and said if my tone had been any drier he would have worried the Sahara had changed locations on the map.
In addition to all the fruit from August continuing to produce, I have added figs, golden raspberries, kiwi (ugh, the fuzziness still gives me shivers), crabapples, Natal plums, and Chinese mulberries. In Dad’s “vineyard” experiment the Concord grapes have finally ripened as have the damson and Stanley plums. Not so happy that the Whip Snakes are back. Dad did like him the occasional prunes and thought the Whip Snakes were funny. Ugh, not me. But at least they keep the rattlers away.
Mom’s apple trees don’t give a care about people saying that apples can’t be grown in Florida. Matter of fact, it is like they are producing just to prove people wrong. The Adams Read, Kimrome green, and Mitsu yellow have all given me a respectable harvest.
I’m making bank though I don’t charge a huge profit, bringing things back from the farmers market and selling them to Junior’s mother’s store. Since the schools weren’t used for northern refugees, they reopened and I don’t have Rosie near as much as I expected to. Maybe that is a good thing ‘cause Nat says she is getting a little boy crazy at church. Ugh. Not my cup o’ tea and I can see some cat fights happening if she tried that with Knox, and Nat got wind of it. Junior and the rest of them are going to have their hands full if she keeps it up. I’m thinking she might be doing it to get Junior’s goat. She needs to be careful with that. You don’t mistreat a big brother if you want him to be around when you need him.
To refill all the nooks and crannies in the garden I’ve planted beets, broccoli, Brussels sprouts (just an experiment), cabbage, carrots, kale, kohlrabi, leeks, lettuce, mustard greens (at Mr. Dunst suggestion), onions, parsley, parsnips, radishes, burdock, arugula, chicory, and amaranth. The amaranth is an experiment to see if I can grow some of my own grain. The chestnuts I’m collecting from the trees over in the wood lot are also a bit of an experiment. The biggest experiment however is something I found online.
I’m collecting acorns. They’re starting to fall like little bombs and that’ll keep up until the spring. You crack the acorns open, take out the nut meats, and then process the tannin out of them. I tried one before processing to see what the books were talking about and O.M.G. my face nearly fell in; worse than powdered alum. Gak. After processing they can be used for a lot of things including being roasted to become a coffee substitute or being ground to mix with cornmeal or white flour. Those last two are what I am most interested in. Bread flour is getting harder and harder to find, and when I do find it more and more expensive. I’ve got an order in with a vendor at the farmers market, but I’ve told him it’s animal feed but needs to be human grade because of the animals it is being fed to. He winked at me and I nodded. He knows why I need it but this way we avoid some of the problems that restrictions cause getting it brought into the state from Georgia where it is grown.
Whoops, gotta go. The Fair Maiden Natasha is getting hacked off at the two Knights jousting too loudly and messing up the cathedral she was MOCing. Lookeths like I need to preventeth some spilling of blood before King Derek arrives home from the Crusades. Yeah, it's been real Medieval here in September for school. Now if I could just find me a dungeon for the idiots that make life harder than it needs to be.
Jeepcats27
Senior Member
Some really nice chapters today! Thank you, Kathy!
sssarawolf
Has No Life - Lives on TB
Loveth it lol
Griz3752
Retired, practising Curmudgeon
I know but I didn't want to be tagged as a hopeless romantic.
Now that I parse that, it's clear that being romantic is what hope is all about . . . .
Chapter 86
Bwahahaha. What did I say? Three, count ‘em three, receptionist in two months. That’s how much turnover from Dayton’s office. This fourth receptionist has only remained because a paralegal came along with him. Yep, this one is a him. He’s made of stronger stuff and doesn’t mind making the coffee so long as he gets to drink it too. Actually I don’t mind him (Derek does), it is the paralegal that I wouldn’t mind seeing the last of because I sure have seen her backside enough.
Yep, a her. And boy does she think a lot of herself. She thinks she is an office manager as well as a paralegal. Not sure who gave her that idea. She acts like she is going to whip the office into shape. The guy looked at me and rolled his eyes while he took a sip of some strong and black. Little did he know that it had been doctored with roasted acorns. I also had a container that was doctored with chicory that was reserved for only a few, special clients that somehow got the idea that the office had ordered it in from Louisiana just for them. Uh huh. Honest, it wasn’t me. Some people just make assumptions. Especially someone’s that think they can control the purse strings of the office. I could have enlightened her but didn’t bother. Why try to stop the creation of rope when all they were going to do with it was hang themselves.
What apparently really chaps her biscuits is that I keep the “special coffee” locked up in Derek’s office when I’m not in. Derek got irritated after finding out she’d been rifling through his things and said there is no reason for her to get into his office when he isn’t around and if it happened again, she wouldn’t have to worry about not liking how things were run, he’d make sure she returned to Tallahassee forthwith. I didn’t say anything, but I suspect she is on the lookout for a lawyer husband and Dayton didn’t take her up on any of her advances (so said Timothy, ye ol’ receptionist) and that with Mr. Barnes being protected by Mrs. Padfield and Taylor being married, that left Derek who was oh so not interested. When I mentioned her possible motivation he shuddered and said, “Don’t give me nightmares.”
The other thing she apparently doesn’t like is when the kids are there with me and that Rosie joins them after school. You can rarely hear a thing out of them, but she still acts like it is inappropriate and I don’t know what all else. I know she must have been the one to complain to someone at the school board, but it backfired on her big time. See I know the man from church.
“It’s just a formality Mina. You turned in your letter of intent to homeschool and the rest so there is no question of truancy. There were a couple that questioned why you had switched from the virtual school.”
Judging honesty to be the best policy in this case I explained, “Because of some of the inappropriate not so age-related activities the AI gave them last year. There was some pretty gory and graphic news film they had to watch. Under the circumstances it wasn’t mentally healthy for them. We still cover current events, just without the color and sound and death count.”
He blinked and then nodded. “Did you report the activity?”
“You mean all those types of activities? Yes, of course, and not just to the AI review board. But their human counterparts … were less than sympathetic. I told them I wasn’t looking for sympathy but common sense. We’re talking about 4th graders, not high school students. They took my complaint but there wasn’t any follow up, so I pulled them. I realize in a classroom you need more of a cookie cutter approach, but the AI lacks the touch of human teachers who would catch that sort of thing.”
From there Knox came out dressed like Da Vinci and asked if he could have some tape as the wing on their flying machine tore.
“What are you doing flying it inside? I told you to do that when we were home.”
“We didn’t mean for it to fly. It just worked too good and the fan set it off.”
“Too well, not too good. And grab the tape off my desk, just put it back.”
The man smiled and asked what they were studying this month. I told him, “The Renaissance and Reformation Age. And if they get any more ‘enlightened’ my hair is going to go gray prematurely. Did you hear what Stephanie Deering brought to church?”
The man coughed and nodded. “I heard.”
“Why on earth she brought her father’s girlfriend’s garter belt and pickaboos to Sunday School is beyond me. I thought Mrs. Camphor was going to pass out.”
He tried not to laugh when he said, “Several of the deacons had a similar reaction.” Looking on my desk he saw the portfolio I was building for the kids’ records and he gave it an impromptu portfolio review and asked if he could send people to me that were interested in home education.
“Of course, but home schooling isn’t for everyone. It isn’t just something you do or try out, it’s a lifestyle. But it isn’t a religion the way some people make it either. It is more about individualization and learning styles and being a facilitator more than a teacher once they get old enough to be self-motivated.”
“Do you teach Daniel?” It was a gotcha question.
“Probably not the way that you are thinking. Derek and I work on school plans together and I facilitate some activities and he handles other things. Derek is still ultimately responsible for Daniel's work. Right now he’s doing a lot of anatomy and physiology as they go over painting and some of the Da Vinci drawings.”
The man took his leave and boy was Miss Priss boiling but you know what? Don’t care. And if I catch her looking at the office’s bookkeeping again - she doesn’t know I can track who accesses the program from their log in - she’s going to get logged out permanently. Whether she is being nosey or is reporting things to Dayton doesn’t matter. She doesn’t have any business in there and I’ve caught her testing the system to see if she can change things. Uh uh. Not happening.
Jeepcats27
Senior Member
New twists and turns! Is Cliffy hoovering? Thank you for the new chapter!
sssarawolf
Has No Life - Lives on TB
Goning to teach someone a lesson I see, lol Thank you.
Griz3752
Retired, practising Curmudgeon
And probably long overdue but those lessons are often like Karma; they gain velocity during travel so when they hit, there's a satisfying thump . . . . .
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Chapter 87
Double digits. Wow. Derek and I managed to take the caballeros to the Brown Lantern for their 10th birthdays but the only thing we could come up with for a “big” gift was an entire tub of miscellaneous legos that I bartered for along with some books with designs for their MOCs. Yes, it was a group gift, but they didn’t care because they prefer working on things together anyway. For their individual gift I repeated what Mom and Dad did. They got a card explaining all the ways they are loved and a valuable part of the family. I admit that I helped Derek write one for Daniel, but he put it in his words. It was on the mushy side for the kids, but I know I still value mine and it is in my keepsake of all keepsakes box. Maybe next year I’ll give them a box to keep that kind of stuff in. Lastly, they all got new church clothes. We bought new jeans for the boys, and I sewed a shirt for each of them in their personal style, and for Nat I did a dress. All three of them are growing. Maybe not like weeds, but they are definitely catching up to above the 50th percentile on the growth chart. Their pediatricians have said they would catch up and they most definitely are.
All three also got gifts from Mr. David which I didn’t expect.
“But why? I mean …”
Derek explained, “Because he knows how I feel about you and the twins. I know we said we were going to keep things quiet and Dad agrees with that. He also agrees with us waiting until things settle down but that doesn’t mean waiting to be family.”
“And Lorena? Does she know?”
He shrugged and dug into the plate of pork chop and Corn-Rice Spoonbread.
I held back for him by the light of the solar lamp I had on the table so he could see to eat as he was very late getting off his shift because there had been a bad accident on I10.
“Lorena will either come around or not. Dad knows how she can be. She’s still just shook up about Felicia. Since she raised her more than Mom ever got the chance to, she looks in the mirror and wonders what she did wrong.”
“And you?”
He thought about it. “It was Felicia’s choice to go to NYC. It was an irresponsible choice. I’m sorry … for lots of things but even before she left for Vegas I had to get comfortable with the idea that at some point she was likely going to come to a bad end. She’d … gotten into drugs. Not heavy use but enough her boundaries were getting even flimsier than they already were. Couple other things apparently that broke Dad up to find out about that still managed to shock me as well despite me suspecting things. But she was an adult, older than you, and … that’s …” He stopped and I could see he wasn’t nearly as resigned as he tried to portray. “The fact she made it as far as Canada before being triaged … maybe … I don’t know. I hope she made her peace. I pray she did. But I … I can’t say for sure but won’t deny it is possible. That’s all I could tell Daniel. That, and because of how and what she died of, they won’t release the body, so we aren’t going to have a grave side service. We’re just going to quietly let her go, and at some point, we’ll get a memorial stone added to the family plot. How’s he seem?”
“Like it is a distant dream. He panics a bit on occasion if he doesn’t know where you are but that’s fading. The twins used to do it to Mitchell and me. And they had a hard time initially with the shared custody thing. We’ll just continue to make sure he understands he isn’t alone and won’t be abandoned.” I was careful not to say anything about how I thought of the way Felicia had treated Daniel … and the rest of her family … because you never have to take things back you never say. Daniel, and Derek either, don’t need me to say things they already know and are hurting about.
I almost didn’t get to go to the farmers’ market this month, but they managed to squeeze me in because I was a “small business” rather than a big corporation. I showed them I used the LLC for reporting and tax purposes with my EIN. When I did that, and proved I could speak their language, everything was fine again. I think they are trying to vet buyers even more than sellers at this point. Between the garden, the orchards and hoop house, and the farmers market I was able to bring in the following: Asian pears, broccoli, cabbage, cucumbers, greens, pumpkins, tomatoes, watermelons, tangerines, Myers lemons, satsuma oranges, navel oranges, Brandywine tomatoes (red, pink, yellow, orange), yellow pear tomatoes, Cherokee purple tomato, amaranth, chicory, acorn squash, bantam yellow corn, navy beans (dry), beets, Japanese hull less popcorn, spaghetti squash, black turtle beans (dry), great northern beans (dry), Jacob’s cattle bean (dry), pinto beans (dry), kale, tangelos, red grapefruit, avocados, coconuts, carambolas, guavas, mushrooms, bell peppers, peanuts, squash, sweet corn, garlic, onions, persimmons, golden raspberries, bananas, Natal plums, strawberry guavas, chestnuts, elderberries, figs, Jamaican cherries, kiwi fruit, muscadine grapes, pineapples, dragonfruit, pomegranates, and tree tomatoes[1] (aka tamarillos). The Kentucky Wonder pole bean is something my mother always planted and I’m really glad the ones that I did have produced as well as they have. I’ve canned just quarts and quarts of them. Even more than I have of the Rattlesnake Pole Beans.
One of the funny things that I’ve harvested this month are the lemon cucumbers[2]. The White Wonder cucumber[3] plants also produced. I also got some from the Dragon Egg[4] cucumber seeds I planted. That one was just a lark after finding a packet of the seeds at a foreclosure. Only about half of them germinated, but that could have been the package they were in and their age and not about my light green thumb.
The peppers of the month have been the Hungarian Yellow wax peppers, sweet banana peppers, cayenne peppers, all the colors of bell peppers (green, yellow, orange, red, and “chocolate”), and Serrano hot peppers. I got so many of them that I was able to take some to barter at the farmers market (after giving some to Mr. David) and in return I got some strawberries plants for after I built them their own round, tiered bed. For the life of me I can’t remember what those beds are called but I’m hoping the set up makes it easier for me to put netting over it once they make so I don’t have to fight the birds over everything.
My hanging pots of cherry tomatoes that I was using to decorate the porch with have given me almost more than I can keep up with, so I shared them with Mrs. Padfield and Lorena. I also sent Lorena some radishes (after a hint from Mrs. Padfield) and I might just be getting the hang of dealing with the woman. It isn’t a matter of bribing her so much as proving that Derek and I can follow our dreams and do more than just scrape by while doing it.
Funny story, but Daniel went to visit his grandparents only to find his cousin – Derek’s older half-sister’s little girl – was having a whirling dervish day. Daniel insisted on making her some “ginger milk” and lecturing her on how poison some things can be for some people … like red dye … and low and behold Derek gets a call and his sister wants to know what else Daniel’s pediatrician recommended. I had a good laugh at that one.
“Don’t sell yourself short Mina. I’ve been passing some of the things you do around at the EMS station. We’ve got a file set up for suggestions to try when people lose access to some of their medications, or they’re trying to get off medications, or lower the amounts they need to take. Do you know we’ve lost people in this county because of infrastructure failure?”
“From what?”
“Infrastructure failure. Systems and structures are failing and can’t be replaced or rebuilt fast enough to keep them from causing harm. Bridges and roads are in crap condition causing accidents. Kids are getting cut off cold turkey from some of their psych meds and it is creating some emergency situations. Same for people on cholesterol and BP meds, and adult psych meds. I can’t mention names, but you’d be surprised at some of the people that are dependent on psych meds for some quality of life, and how they are handling having to cut back.”
“Or not,” I said. “Don’t forget, I saw Mr. Clemon’s son taking his clothes off at the corner of 90 and Main in broad daylight. I never would have guessed he was schizophrenic.”
“Yeah, Eddie was fine until we were in high school. He was there in 9th grade and just fine but by Christmas break of our 10th grade he was talking to people that weren’t there that were telling him to do things that no way looked normal.” He sighed. “We’ve put him on the emergency list for seeing the psychiatrist at the hospital in Lake City, but the waiting list is long and Eddie is harmless; some others aren’t when they are off their meds. They’ve reopened every building and wing at the Florida State Hospital and are even converting staff offices to residential holding areas. And it still won’t be enough. They are talking about moving populations around and using some of the minimum security prisons for mentally ill people that can’t be served in their community.”
“Will Mr. Clemon’s son wind up there?”
“Hopefully not. Like I said, he was always harmless even at his worst. More danger to himself than anything else. But that’s not always the case. And when it is more than just one member of the family exhibiting that kind of behavior, it can get dangerous when singly it wouldn’t. There’s a family in Colombia county that has four of their five kids on some strong psych meds. The oldest has already been taken out of the home for trying to set fire to his sister’s bed and he used to be his class valedictorian. The other three are about to be removed and would have been already had there been a facility to send them to. The one kid that isn’t on psych meds is so traumatized she needs counseling, and the parents are just not living in reality land and are trying to say it is the state’s fault their kids are the way they are.”
Derek sees a lot of stuff like that. I’m surprised he doesn’t need psych drugs himself considering some of the stories he’s told. On the other hand, he seems to be handling it a lot better than some of the draftees. Maybe it is his calling, but he’s also a good lawyer. Plus, he’s known in town and people trust him. I’m glad people are seeing his worth, I just hope he can find the sweet spot when he gets to decide his own time between the two.
Speaking of the sweet spot, tomorrow I start harvesting the cox orange pippin apples, Akansas Black apples, Enterprise red apples, and the King Dave red/green apples. I’m also going to see if the pecan trees are ready for the kids to make like monkeys and shake the nuts off so we can rake them up and then bag them so they can cure before I crack them to get to the nut meats inside.
In succession planting I’ve got a bunch of herbs that need to go from their pots into the fancy herb garden (it is a geometry project for the kids), Chinese cabbage that will come in handy for the stir-fries I plan on making to change up how we are eating rice, spinach to add to the greens, and kohlrabi because I have one of those spare packets of seeds I need to use while they’ll still germinate. I’m also trying another experiment in the open land that sits across from the house. I’m planting rye (2 bushels/acre), triticale (112 lbs/acre), and soft red wheat (2 bushels/acre). I did get the fifty pound back of whole wheat at the farmers market (oh my gosh did that cost) but with as much bread as I bake I need to find a cheaper source.
Being down to two days a week means the clients going to the law offices aren’t getting the treatment they were receiving when I was there more often. They are a lot less willing to overlook some of what I consider irregularities. I can’t push too fast however as I don’t want to get Mr. Barnes or Derek in trouble.
[1] How to Plant and Grow a Tree Tomato
[2] https://www.rareseeds.com/cucumber-lemon-cuke
[3] How to Grow White Wonder Cucumbers
[4] https://www.rareseeds.com/cucumber-dragon-s-egg
Corn-Rice Spoonbread Recipe
¼ c. stone-ground yellow cornmeal
1 t. salt
½ t. baking soda
2 T. butter, melted and cooled
2 eggs
2 c. buttermilk
1 cup cooked leftover rice (plain white, brown, or other)
Preheat oven to 325F. Spray an 8” square pan or similar cast iron skillet with oil and set aside. (If using cast iron, hit skillet or other such pan in oven while mixing the remaining ingredients. Then carefully remove for filling.) Combine the cornmeal, salt, and baking soda. Combine the melted butter, eggs, and butter milk in a larger bowl by whisking, then gently stir the dry ingredients in. Be gentle, the ingredients didn’t do anything to you so you don’t need to beat them to death. After incorporating everything together so there are no dry lumps left, pour them into your baking container of choice. Bake until firmed, puffy, and browned to your personal liking. Something like 50 to 55 minutes depending on how hot your oven runs.
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