Jeepcats27
Senior Member
It is scary how much she is foraging because so many urban areas don't have that. In real life, not many people will access or the knowledge. Thanks for the chapter! more recipes to track down! Thanks!
Story Up On Hartford Ridge
- Thread starter Kathy in FL
- Start date
sssarawolf
Has No Life - Lives on TB
Couldn't help it, I just had to read these tonight, 
No but nothing lasts forever. And remember months have gone by at this point in the story. They are also feeding more people that are working hard and require a lot of calories and carbs. I remember when my grandmother would put on a feed for everyone working in the fields. It took multiple chickens, a couple of quarts of each vegetable on the table, several pans of cornbread, at least 10 pounds of potatoes either mashed or fried, and gallons upon gallons of tea just to get everyone their first tall glass full.
Try doing that all week ... all month. That is a lot of food.
Just in their regular household Kay-Lee - with Barbara's help - feeds four hardworking adults, a preteen boy, and a baby that is now starting to eat table food (in small quantity but still it is an extra mouth). That's in addition to the two 100 lbs dogs that earn their keep and work hard themselves. Yes, Sawyer and Huely are gone more often than they are home at this stage but all that does is take a little pressure off. When they are home they have to make up for slim rations when they aren't.
Foraging takes a lot of time and energy. A lot. You have to make sure the outgoing calories are worth the incoming calories. All of this stuff Kay-Lee forages isn't just on the home lot. It is spread across their 120 acres that isn't all flat land. Some of it isn't usable for field crops but does have intentionally (and wild) bushes, shrubs, trees, etc planted that she marked off last year when she found it the first time around. She isn't foraging completely blind, but she does have to be careful not to overharvest her resources, or at least have a plan for helping them to come back in the following seasons. She's also going to have to deal with the fact wild forage is not as reliable as domesticated crops. What produced abundantly one year may not produce at all the next.
I've gamed out such a scenario (having to survive on/supplement with wild forage) at both my primary home and our BOL. It is doable but just barely. It won't work if I don't have some way to add protein and fat to the diet. I've been building the landscaping at both locations but it is a matter of finding what works and what really works in each microclimate. You don't have to be a landscape architect to do this, but it isn't just a matter of buying a packet of seeds and throwing them on the ground either.
juco
Veteran Member
Truth! My dad’s sister and her husband had a farm in NC when I was growing up. During planting and harvest, it looked like Sunday dinner every day at lunchtime. Well, minus the deserts. That was usually MoonPies.
It was a full time job for the women, up before dawn to make coffee and breakfast and pack snacks. Clean up and start lunch. Put on a feed for the men when they came in from the fields. Clean up. Start supper. Rinse and repeat.
Not to mention there was always food being harvested and preserved in the middle of all that. It’s hard work!
It sure is. I want to give a nuclear eye roll every time I see the term "Hobby Farm." There is no such thing. You are either farming or you aren't and the last thing that amount of work is is a "hobby." If it is a hobby it isn't a farm. You might be growing some stuff. You might even have a field full of one thing here or there but that isn't a "farm." A farm is its own ecosystem that all interacts and interplays with everything else on the farm.
As for desserts, I've known what a "sheet cake" is for a long time. LOL. Memaw would make one or two up and then slice it in squares about the size of a credit card. It would be "dressed" with mashed and sweetened fruit/berries or warm chocolate gravy. Or, if there were fruit and berries in abundance because they were being processed in preparation for canning or freezing them anyway, there would be huge pans of cobbler. Memaw was famous for her blackberry cobbler with the lattice top.
kyrsyan
Has No Life - Lives on TB
Hobby Farm is actually an IRS based term. Or it used to be. If the farm was under 10? acres, it was considered a hobby and you could not take business deductions for it. I don't know if that limit exists anymore. It shouldn't. I've seen people do a whole lot with just one or two acres.
teedee
Veteran Member
First thanks for the new chapters! I can remember, as a young boy back in Illinois, the thrashing meals. There was so much food. Every one would bring their specialty and it was all so good. The whole neighborhood would come with the one thrashing machine that was owned by one of the neighbors. Probably 8 or 10 farms participated. The oats was for the horses back in the day. I can remember shocking the oat bundles out in the field.
There's a magazine these days called "Hobby Farm."
I prefer the term Micro Farm or Mini Farm both of which have there own movements.
Not to be negative because Lord knows I'd neeeever to that (insert your own nuclear eye roll at this juncture) but the IRS can pound sand. If you are buying and selling and making money off your labors they are going to tax it so trying to say "hobby farms" as they define it can't take expenses just isn't how it is. If it isn't a business ... in that you aren't selling or trading with the public for fun and profit as your goal ... then why the heck does the IRS need to call it anything? You certainly shouldn't be reporting it.
kyrsyan
Has No Life - Lives on TB
No clue. And I don't have the time to dig into those regulations. But given the number of people that are making working farms of much smaller acreage nowadays, I wouldn't be surprised that acreage is no longer a consideration, at least for basic business taxes. It may be a consideration for Fed gov aid/write-offs.
My grandmother would have died of embarrassment to have someone see her put out something like Moon Pies at hayin' time. Oh Lordy! LOL LOL Peach cobbler, apple pie, vinegar pie, chocolate cake and maybe if I had a say in it gooseberry pie.
juco
Veteran Member
Wow. I’m sure you didn’t intend for that to sound the way it did, so I won’t get all offended. lol
If y’all can put up with what I say when my foot heads towards my mouth then y’all can do it for each other. LOL!
When we put out goodies for the ghouls and goblins on Halloween, it's not all candy. I catch things like mini muffin packs, cereal bars, bags of chips/pretzels/ect..., those applesauce packets, Fruit roll ups, and yes - Moon Pies - on sale in the weeks before Halloween and add them to the candy on the table. I have no age limit on trick-or-treaters; and it's mostly the Dads who are saying "Oh Wow - Moon Pies!" 
juco
Veteran Member
Oh my gosh, that sounds delicious!
Old Gray Mare
TB Fanatic
If the family doesn't miss the calories from the Kay-Lee/Sawyer farm this winter they probably would in the early spring during the hunger time before the gardens produce. It isn't an idle threat Kay-Lee made.
The canning days also ensured the participants got a substantial meal, maybe more than one each week. That's no longer happening.
It will be interesting to see how and if her status in the family is effected. Mother hen you realize you've totally spoiled us with this many chapters? And yes I noticed the sub plot you added... the spooks... Bases on the nearby property purchased by the corporation? Who are they and who's side are they on?
The canning days also ensured the participants got a substantial meal, maybe more than one each week. That's no longer happening.
It will be interesting to see how and if her status in the family is effected. Mother hen you realize you've totally spoiled us with this many chapters? And yes I noticed the sub plot you added... the spooks... Bases on the nearby property purchased by the corporation? Who are they and who's side are they on?
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Chapter 109
“Where. Have. You. Been?!” I nearly screamed though no one in the house could have heard me over the rain pounding on the metal rough of the barn. I was so exhausted that I’d first overslept and then fallen asleep again out on the porch after cleaning up from breakfast. I felt like there was a red-hot poker running from my bad foot up to about the middle of my back. My arms weren’t as bad, but my shoulders were feeling the strain from last night. Add that it was still raining, and it had taken me a bit to realize that Burt had left the house.
“Two hours! Two hours I’ve been looking for you!”
“I was working,” Burt told me like it should have been obvious.
“You were what?!”
“I was working Aunt Kay-Lee.” And that’s when I saw the skid and that it was only now half-covered with one of the camouflage tarps we use. Under the tarp were melons similar to the ones I had intended to go out and try and get tonight.
“Burt!”
“You’re tired Aunt Kay-Lee. And you’re limping bad. I’ve helped before so I know I could do this.”
He sounded so reasonable I wanted to just sit in the dirt and cry. “Oh Burt. Yes, this is a help but please don’t do anything like this again without telling me first. I didn’t know where you were. I was worried sick. And now I don’t know if you were seen or anything.”
Again so reasonable he made my teeth hurt on top of everything else. “It’s raining hard enough the drones aren’t out flying. The harvesters and inspectors haven’t come out in this rain neither. Like you always say, it was a chance worth taking.”
Just great. Now I’ve got eleven-year-olds using my words against me. “Burt …” He heard the warning growl in my voice, and he had the sense a good salesman does to back up and come back at you from another direction.
“Uh … sorry Aunt Kay-Lee. I really didn’t mean to worry you. And I saw Uncle Ned.”
“You what?! When … and where?”
“With Uncle Mark and Davis. They were coming this way warning people there were crop rustlers in the area.”
# # # # #
“Oh we already know that.”
“There’s also military convoys using the county roads to get through between North Carolina and Florida and they’ve been seen out thisaway.”
“Oh we already know that too.”
Uncle Mark said, “Oh really. Anything you don’t know?”
“Probably not. You might want to come to the house and ask Aunt Kay-Lee. She can tell you for sure.”
Uncle Ned and Davis were choking trying not to laugh. Uncle Mark had a completely different expression on his face.
# # # # #
I just shook my head and pointed to the house. “Get. Go dry off. If Barbara doesn’t skin you for worrying us like you have there’s some warm cider in a thermos and some saved backed soup and cornbread that you better not have to be asked to finish up and then wash your bowl and put it away.”
He got. As I watched him run towards the house … and puddle jumping while he did it … all I could think of was that old joke about what was written on a headstone. “My mouth got me where I am today.” Gosh.
I had moved the melons to the porch and Burt had taken them down to the basement for me to decide what to do with them. I had convinced Barbara just to sit and crack acorns on the porch. I kept the broom and flyswatter out of her reach anytime Burt was in sight. He’d worried us both and Barbara didn’t need the stress. With her pregnant and me crippled up there were days we barely got the work of one person done. This had been one of those days.
Coming from the front I hear, “”Lo the house. Anyone to home?”
I jump up and limp to the corner, “Uncle Ned?!”
I was throwing on Sawyer’s rain slicker when the man himself came around and said, “Aw don’t do that. If you don’t mind our muddy boots we’ll come up there to you. Be nice to get out of the wet for a few.”
Barbara and I hugged on all three of them with no shame at all. And they hugged back the same. But I let her do the talking while I checked on the kids who were dangerously quiet. I found Burt and Jolene had gone to sleep in the back bedroom that had been babyproofed so that Jolene could practice her walking and I left them on the rug in there after covering them with a quilt. I came back out and nodded at Barbara before saying, “You win the bet.”
She said, “They’ll both probably sleep until supper.”
“Hopefully.” I didn’t say it was because they were up and down all night and then Burt “helping” this morning too.
I turned and asked generally, “How’s the family?”
Davis turns red and I laughed. “She sent you to live in the barn yet?”
“Oh she’s over that part. Now she says she’s going to keep me around close, so she can practice her aim on.”
Everyone laughed, even Davis, because while he might be embarrassed, it is obvious he’s pleased and happy as well.
Uncle Mark sighed and said, “Sit down before you fall down.”
Well I was so inclined anyway so I did.
“What brings all three of you this way?” I asked.
Davis says, “Don’t you know?”
The hammer in my head started thumping.
“Davis, please. Barbara and I are tired, and I know Burt’s mouth probably caught you sideways. He’s at that age that it happens more than it should and I have him working on it. Just, if it is bad news spit it out. I’m not up for any suspense and mystery.”
Uncle Mark looked at me hard, but not in anger. “Tommy has said that Heuly and Sawyer get taken off quite a bit and that you have the inspectors around more than most. They harassing you?”
“Probably, but usually I can ignore it. They were supposed to be out here today, but the rain has been hard enough we haven’t had to put up with them. What about you all?”
“Often enough. Like you, we expected to see at least a team or three of harvesters in the pumpkins and squash.”
I snorted. “They’ve already taken all of ours except for what is still ripening. There’s enough left they’ll be back out next month for them. I don’t know if they’ll leave anything to ripen for winter storage varieties or not. They’re kinda indiscriminate.”
“What of the gleaning rows?”
“What’s a gleaning row?”
The three men look at each other but left Uncle Mark to do the talking. “The rows they are supposed to leave for the property owner to have to feed themselves with.”
I pointed over their shoulders. “You see that garden? That’s what we’ve been allowed to keep. Certified with an inspection sheet tacked to a post they dug and installed themselves. Sawyer had mentioned that they’re skimming things they shouldn’t but there’s nothing that can be done about it for now. Maybe if they didn’t keep hauling our men off to do jobs they are apparently too unskilled to do themselves, there’d be more we could say about it.” I shrugged. “We’re surviving.”
Uncle Ned asked, “You still buying at what you call the forest grocery?”
“We sure aren’t getting groceries from town,” I said trying not to be disrespectful. “As for foraging, the permits say we can. I just have to be careful to stay on our land. If I got caught doing it some other place there could be trouble and I could be sanctioned, fined, maybe arrested so I stay close to the home lot. We’ve heard mutterings from harvesters talking amongst themselves that it has happened in other places, including in town, so we’re being careful.”
Barbara said, “I’m pretty sure from the description that my family are some of those that it happened to up here on the Ridge.”
Davis looked at his father and I looked at Uncle Mark and all but begged him with my eyes not to say more if he knew more. While Barbara was answering a question from Uncle Ned, Uncle Mark took a small notepad out of his pocked and started scribbling. To cover what he was doing he asked, “Are you two getting along all right? Need something?”
“No. Well, we need to find a way to set some meat back before winter gets here but I’m sure everyone is in that same boat. I don’t know where the deer and wild hogs have gone but I haven’t seen a one since early September. I don’t want to have to cull the few chickens that we’ve been allowed, but I might not have any choice.”
“Too many fools overhunted things last year and the drought didn’t let ‘em come back this year as they’s normally would,” Uncle Ned said, answering my curiosity. “And a lot of deer to the north of here had Blue Tongue. Poachers and the like came down this way huntin’ out a season, takin’ too many does. The boars and their harems are staying high in the foothills and making a nuisance of themselves up thataway. They’re girdling trees, rooting around and causing erosion, same sort of problems they cause round here Honey. Don’t know why we haven’t seen as many as normal though. Ain’t no guns, so many have been confiscated. And if folks managed to keep their guns, ain’t no ammo to speak of. Though more n’ like its prolly for the same as the deer, they’s getting’ hunted over. If we hadn’t taken that bear the rest of us would be hurtin’ bad.”
I blinked but didn’t say anything. We each had to do what we had to do. If I wasn’t sharing what all we had I can’t complain that they haven’t.
Uncle Mark may have been reading my mind and asked a distracting question. “How long have Sawyer and Huely been gone?”
I wanted to thump him. Barbara got up and walked to the porch railing, barely staying out of the rain. I gave all three men warning looks. “They’ve been gone two weeks. And yes, that’s the longest they’ve been away and yes we are worried. Can we change the subject to something that we can do something about?”
We shared more information about the family and then they needed to go as they had a long ways to walk to get themselves home.
“Where. Have. You. Been?!” I nearly screamed though no one in the house could have heard me over the rain pounding on the metal rough of the barn. I was so exhausted that I’d first overslept and then fallen asleep again out on the porch after cleaning up from breakfast. I felt like there was a red-hot poker running from my bad foot up to about the middle of my back. My arms weren’t as bad, but my shoulders were feeling the strain from last night. Add that it was still raining, and it had taken me a bit to realize that Burt had left the house.
“Two hours! Two hours I’ve been looking for you!”
“I was working,” Burt told me like it should have been obvious.
“You were what?!”
“I was working Aunt Kay-Lee.” And that’s when I saw the skid and that it was only now half-covered with one of the camouflage tarps we use. Under the tarp were melons similar to the ones I had intended to go out and try and get tonight.
“Burt!”
“You’re tired Aunt Kay-Lee. And you’re limping bad. I’ve helped before so I know I could do this.”
He sounded so reasonable I wanted to just sit in the dirt and cry. “Oh Burt. Yes, this is a help but please don’t do anything like this again without telling me first. I didn’t know where you were. I was worried sick. And now I don’t know if you were seen or anything.”
Again so reasonable he made my teeth hurt on top of everything else. “It’s raining hard enough the drones aren’t out flying. The harvesters and inspectors haven’t come out in this rain neither. Like you always say, it was a chance worth taking.”
Just great. Now I’ve got eleven-year-olds using my words against me. “Burt …” He heard the warning growl in my voice, and he had the sense a good salesman does to back up and come back at you from another direction.
“Uh … sorry Aunt Kay-Lee. I really didn’t mean to worry you. And I saw Uncle Ned.”
“You what?! When … and where?”
“With Uncle Mark and Davis. They were coming this way warning people there were crop rustlers in the area.”
# # # # #
“Oh we already know that.”
“There’s also military convoys using the county roads to get through between North Carolina and Florida and they’ve been seen out thisaway.”
“Oh we already know that too.”
Uncle Mark said, “Oh really. Anything you don’t know?”
“Probably not. You might want to come to the house and ask Aunt Kay-Lee. She can tell you for sure.”
Uncle Ned and Davis were choking trying not to laugh. Uncle Mark had a completely different expression on his face.
# # # # #
I just shook my head and pointed to the house. “Get. Go dry off. If Barbara doesn’t skin you for worrying us like you have there’s some warm cider in a thermos and some saved backed soup and cornbread that you better not have to be asked to finish up and then wash your bowl and put it away.”
He got. As I watched him run towards the house … and puddle jumping while he did it … all I could think of was that old joke about what was written on a headstone. “My mouth got me where I am today.” Gosh.
I had moved the melons to the porch and Burt had taken them down to the basement for me to decide what to do with them. I had convinced Barbara just to sit and crack acorns on the porch. I kept the broom and flyswatter out of her reach anytime Burt was in sight. He’d worried us both and Barbara didn’t need the stress. With her pregnant and me crippled up there were days we barely got the work of one person done. This had been one of those days.
Coming from the front I hear, “”Lo the house. Anyone to home?”
I jump up and limp to the corner, “Uncle Ned?!”
I was throwing on Sawyer’s rain slicker when the man himself came around and said, “Aw don’t do that. If you don’t mind our muddy boots we’ll come up there to you. Be nice to get out of the wet for a few.”
Barbara and I hugged on all three of them with no shame at all. And they hugged back the same. But I let her do the talking while I checked on the kids who were dangerously quiet. I found Burt and Jolene had gone to sleep in the back bedroom that had been babyproofed so that Jolene could practice her walking and I left them on the rug in there after covering them with a quilt. I came back out and nodded at Barbara before saying, “You win the bet.”
She said, “They’ll both probably sleep until supper.”
“Hopefully.” I didn’t say it was because they were up and down all night and then Burt “helping” this morning too.
I turned and asked generally, “How’s the family?”
Davis turns red and I laughed. “She sent you to live in the barn yet?”
“Oh she’s over that part. Now she says she’s going to keep me around close, so she can practice her aim on.”
Everyone laughed, even Davis, because while he might be embarrassed, it is obvious he’s pleased and happy as well.
Uncle Mark sighed and said, “Sit down before you fall down.”
Well I was so inclined anyway so I did.
“What brings all three of you this way?” I asked.
Davis says, “Don’t you know?”
The hammer in my head started thumping.
“Davis, please. Barbara and I are tired, and I know Burt’s mouth probably caught you sideways. He’s at that age that it happens more than it should and I have him working on it. Just, if it is bad news spit it out. I’m not up for any suspense and mystery.”
Uncle Mark looked at me hard, but not in anger. “Tommy has said that Heuly and Sawyer get taken off quite a bit and that you have the inspectors around more than most. They harassing you?”
“Probably, but usually I can ignore it. They were supposed to be out here today, but the rain has been hard enough we haven’t had to put up with them. What about you all?”
“Often enough. Like you, we expected to see at least a team or three of harvesters in the pumpkins and squash.”
I snorted. “They’ve already taken all of ours except for what is still ripening. There’s enough left they’ll be back out next month for them. I don’t know if they’ll leave anything to ripen for winter storage varieties or not. They’re kinda indiscriminate.”
“What of the gleaning rows?”
“What’s a gleaning row?”
The three men look at each other but left Uncle Mark to do the talking. “The rows they are supposed to leave for the property owner to have to feed themselves with.”
I pointed over their shoulders. “You see that garden? That’s what we’ve been allowed to keep. Certified with an inspection sheet tacked to a post they dug and installed themselves. Sawyer had mentioned that they’re skimming things they shouldn’t but there’s nothing that can be done about it for now. Maybe if they didn’t keep hauling our men off to do jobs they are apparently too unskilled to do themselves, there’d be more we could say about it.” I shrugged. “We’re surviving.”
Uncle Ned asked, “You still buying at what you call the forest grocery?”
“We sure aren’t getting groceries from town,” I said trying not to be disrespectful. “As for foraging, the permits say we can. I just have to be careful to stay on our land. If I got caught doing it some other place there could be trouble and I could be sanctioned, fined, maybe arrested so I stay close to the home lot. We’ve heard mutterings from harvesters talking amongst themselves that it has happened in other places, including in town, so we’re being careful.”
Barbara said, “I’m pretty sure from the description that my family are some of those that it happened to up here on the Ridge.”
Davis looked at his father and I looked at Uncle Mark and all but begged him with my eyes not to say more if he knew more. While Barbara was answering a question from Uncle Ned, Uncle Mark took a small notepad out of his pocked and started scribbling. To cover what he was doing he asked, “Are you two getting along all right? Need something?”
“No. Well, we need to find a way to set some meat back before winter gets here but I’m sure everyone is in that same boat. I don’t know where the deer and wild hogs have gone but I haven’t seen a one since early September. I don’t want to have to cull the few chickens that we’ve been allowed, but I might not have any choice.”
“Too many fools overhunted things last year and the drought didn’t let ‘em come back this year as they’s normally would,” Uncle Ned said, answering my curiosity. “And a lot of deer to the north of here had Blue Tongue. Poachers and the like came down this way huntin’ out a season, takin’ too many does. The boars and their harems are staying high in the foothills and making a nuisance of themselves up thataway. They’re girdling trees, rooting around and causing erosion, same sort of problems they cause round here Honey. Don’t know why we haven’t seen as many as normal though. Ain’t no guns, so many have been confiscated. And if folks managed to keep their guns, ain’t no ammo to speak of. Though more n’ like its prolly for the same as the deer, they’s getting’ hunted over. If we hadn’t taken that bear the rest of us would be hurtin’ bad.”
I blinked but didn’t say anything. We each had to do what we had to do. If I wasn’t sharing what all we had I can’t complain that they haven’t.
Uncle Mark may have been reading my mind and asked a distracting question. “How long have Sawyer and Huely been gone?”
I wanted to thump him. Barbara got up and walked to the porch railing, barely staying out of the rain. I gave all three men warning looks. “They’ve been gone two weeks. And yes, that’s the longest they’ve been away and yes we are worried. Can we change the subject to something that we can do something about?”
We shared more information about the family and then they needed to go as they had a long ways to walk to get themselves home.
Jeepcats27
Senior Member
What a nice surprise, a new chapter, I checked right before going to bed. Thank you, only it sounds like CLIFF is hanging out and that is scary!
Sammy55
Veteran Member
Just checking last minute before heading to bed and it was great to find another chapter. However, it left me with more questions than I had before. I'm sure Clif will be in my dreams!
Thanks, Kathy! This book is much appreciated even though it's now become on the "scary" side!
Thanks, Kathy! This book is much appreciated even though it's now become on the "scary" side!
Chapter 110
“You don’t need to protect me Kay-Lee, I’m older than you are.”
I looked at Barbara and said, “And you don’t need to protect me, but you do. You’re pregnant and shouldn’t be doing half the things you do. But you have to because I can’t.”
She sighed. “You’d probably figure a way to do it yourself if I wasn’t around but … let’s not get into that silly discussion again. I need to help you for my own reasons, and you need the help for yours. And vice versa. Let’s just leave it. But you didn’t need to shut Uncle Mark down. I saw Davis give him a look.”
“I did not want them upsetting you. The Hartford men are not known for their tact and grace,” I said deadpan.
She gave a surprised laugh. “You don’t need to tell me that.” Then she got serious. “Just tell me Kay-Lee. What was in that letter than Uncle Mark thought he was being so sneaky to hand off to you. The Hartford men don’t have any tact or grace, but they also aren’t as sneaky as they believe. The Hartford women are better at it. And you, you beat us all hands down. But I can read you now, so give already.”
“I was going to tell you anyway. It’s not as bad as I was afraid of. At least some parts. The parts that are worse? Well they don’t exactly surprise me.”
# # # # #
On the wadded up note pad paper Uncle Mark had written, “Not going to be time to explain all this like I had hoped. Rain slowed us down and dark is coming earlier and earlier and Davis won’t want to leave Cindy alone at night. Thank the Lord my place is as close to Dad’s as it is or I’d never get any work done. The letter holds some information. Doubt you’ll be surprised by much of it. Linda, Jeannie, and some of the other girls have sent you notes. See what you can make of them. I promised not to read them. Pearl wanted to send a note but she wasn’t sure how well it would be received and didn’t want to cause problems. If you don’t mind, I’m going to tell her to stop worrying about it. You two are going to have to work things out though how you will with all that’s going on I’m not even going to try and mess in. Women. Your highest priority seems to be driving us men crazy. I see you didn’t want me to say anything to Barbara. You read this letter and decide for yourself but in my opinion you can’t protect everyone from everything. I was hoping that Thomas was wrong and Sawyer and Huely, at least one of them, would have been back. Them two boys are needed, and not just by you and Barbara. Dad is getting worried. We all are. You’ll understand. Isn’t any way to put much of this in a good light.”
# # # # #
“Kay-Lee?”
I startled out of my wool-gathering. “Sorry.”
“You’re exhausted. If … I mean …”
“No. We need to talk this out. I just don’t know how to start.”
“Start with my parents,” she said. “That’s all I really want to know about on that side.”
# # # # #
Girl, as a precaution I am writing this all out. I’m not too worried about it falling into the wrong hands. You are about the only one that can read my handwriting. Not even D can and C refuses to even try anymore. However, I’d prefer that once you have read this that you put it some place safe just in case I am wrong. You might even consider burning it after S has a chance to read it … or you read it to him.
I’ll start with UN [Uncle Ned] is positive that you are foraging to keep those in your house fed. I’m fairly positive of that myself but you need to be taking all due caution. None of us took into consideration while we were planning how much our movements were going to be restricted. T is the only one not looked at with suspicion when he travels from homestead to homestead and I’m sure I don’t have to explain why. I’m sure you also understand the boy is being underestimated though he really is only doing what he appears to be doing … checking on family and sharing what little news we get.
There are reasons you need to use caution and it isn’t just the damn inspectors and harvesters. The military, or those claiming to be the military are using county roads and state highways to travel south. Always south which concerns me. I have not seen them, but C’s family has. Just another piece of this damn puzzle that I’m not able to find a place for yet to help make a picture.
The only thing good I can say about that type of military movement is it has curtailed the rustlers in this area. They use hit and run tactics that seem more about opportunity than planned out attacks as they did last year. No more big operations like when they would come in and strip entire fields. Now it is just a nibble here and a nibble there. They seem to be staying away from the gleaning rows. Whether that is because of their proximity to houses or because they don’t want to make an enemy of the farmers I’m unsure of just yet. For all I know it could be both or nothing at all but coincidence. Just don’t be foolish, if you see them just back away. Be cautious, not friendly or helpful. They are not our friends and are likely as bad an enemy as the politicians, just of a different variety.
And speaking of using caution. Tell B not to trust any of her family that might seek her out. They’ve gotten themselves in some hot water with the authorities. Some of their … uh hem … practices came to light after local law enforcement logs were reviewed and an investigation completed. They were also found to be poaching, and by that I mean hunting off their personal property, out of season, and taking more than they were granted to glean. B’s cousins and brother-in-law let their mouths run ahead of their brains and they were arrested and put to hard labor in a work camp someplace. Her parents seem to be doing okay. Same for her sister. Her grandfather not so much but her grandmother is now acting head of the family because her uncle has had some kind of breakdown and removed to the state hospital.
None of those that have been taken off have been heard from since their arrests. Same for others in the area hauled off in the same truck. They said there were investigations, but I wonder who was doing it and how legal the penalties. No confirmation of who all it happened to; I have my suspicions, but that is all they are. No one talks about it. They’ve been told not to talk about it, because if they do things will go much worse for their family members that were taken away as well as the ones left behind. As for the rest of her family, they are laying low; but losing that many is a powerful incentive to try and find a way to help them. Or to seek revenge by informing on others. I’m not saying that will or even might be happening in the community up here but no sense in taking chances. You just keep yourselves to yourselves. Something tells me I don’t have to explain that to you. S told me some of the hard life you had. L and T have told me more than I think they realize as well. And add this to your thinking about whether you are going to comply with what I ask of you, there are still people like those friends of M’s [Mason] around and about. Not as many as before but a few of them have made a name and place for themselves helping the inspectors.
As for this family, I and my brothers have been forced to take a long, hard look at our family. We made some assumptions. Foolish ones at that. I pray that we can survive the asses we have made out of ourselves. The heartbreak and disappointment of some can’t be measured for now.
We’ve had a few of the wives return to their families though none of them have been my sister in laws. Perhaps the marriages in jeopardy can be saved but I doubt all of them will, or all of them want to. There’s a lot of bad blood over some of the break ups, and not just between the couples. Worldviews have had a surprising effect. Not all the girls came from families that were as conservative and traditional as was thought. It certainly caused unexpected problems. I can say none that have children are in that shape though some came close, and a few are still struggling to completely work things out. C and B [Cutter and Beth] were a near thing, but they pulled back from the brink, and it looks like whatever had been eating at the two of them since the beginning is now over. They even had Dad say words in a renewal of their vows a few Sundays back.
Don’t let your bustle cut you in two over this next part. UF [Uncle Forrester] had another spell but after coming out of it has had some return of his speech if not his gait. Strangest thing I have ever heard of, and I don’t know if I trust it to be permanent, but I thought you would want to know. When I found out T hadn’t told you I told him he better wear one of his old football helmets next time he goes to see you as you were likely to take a rolling pin to it. Or worse, have your feelings hurt and cry. I think the latter scares him more than the first.
And now for this, it is sticking in my craw to say it, but it needs saying. If any of the other boys beyond the ones that S was close to come to see you, and perhaps even them, you be very careful what you share. Also be cautious just in case – and God help me for saying it could be true – they attempt to push you around or scare you into complying with whatever they may want. I’m not sure what has gotten into a few of them. And a couple have run their mouths, especially about S. A couple of the boys have run off completely and haven’t been seen in weeks. It worries me, it really does.
I hope S returns soon. The boys are starting to go their own way too much for me to get enough information out of them to figure out what is going on and who all knows about it. They’ve shut D out. He was hurt at first but now he just ignores it and stays with me or Dad. Same for T who some view as little better than a family servant they try and order about. D and T get along better as a work team than I would have credited. They never fought but I didn’t think they had as much in common as they seem to now. Being a father also takes up a great deal of D’s’ time as it did mine when he was little and my wife was still alive. That’s true for all the boys that now have that level of responsibility. It’s the ones whose wives have left or who don’t have children that seem to be a part of whatever is going on. I don’t like it. I don’t like it at all.
Now for this next. Girl you need to use some commonsense. T says you call the unexplained around here haunts and spooks or hobgoblins. I’m going to credit you with a sense of humor and not that you really believe in that nonsense. There are others saying the same thing I don’t credit with any sense at all. Every disappearance is now being put down to this nonsense. People are getting scared, and some scared and ignorant. It isn’t just outsiders this is happening to either. BD [took me a while to realize he meant Brother Don] disappeared for nearly two weeks but came back acting like everyone was making way more of it than they should. But the man was afraid and trying to hide it, and he is just now getting over it after people stopped pestering him to reveal what happened. There’s also been some females that have gone missing, and I don’t think all of them were willing. There’s more of that going on in town but I’d feel better, and know S would too, keeping one of the dogs with you while you are foraging. Better yet, if the inspectors haven’t confiscated it, find S’s pistol and keep it on you. Assuming you can load it and use it without hurting yourself. If there is no ammo or you can’t, don’t bother. An empty gun is nothing but an expensive club and an empty pistol not even that.
And this I hope does scare you into some caution. There’re stories of children disappearing to. Don’t know anyone that it has happened to personally, but the stories persist and where there is smoke there is fire. Make sure the boy understands that. He’s not as wild as S was at that age, or several of the others, but he’s at least half his mother’s family, and has an independent streak and a mouth bound to get him in trouble one of these days.
Let us know when S and H return … and if they don’t. We’ll figure something out.
UM
# # # # #
Barbara looked at me and said, “Typical Uncle Mark. Does he think we can just shut the windows and lock the doors and stay inside until our husband’s come home?”
I finally smiled. “Well I’m relieved I’m not the only one thinking that.” Turning down the wattage and trying not to seem like I was only interested in making a joke I said, “Still, maybe we should go over the house and hide things that could make us a target.”
“Hide them where?”
“The attic? Between you, me, and Burt we could probably figure out a way to cover the attic door.”
“Maybe. But I’d like to know when we’re going to have the time for that little project,” she said, her voice dripping with sarcasm. “We’ve got to do something with all those apples – I’m going to start that as soon as I read the notes from the wives if you don’t mind – and the look on your face says you are going out again tonight whether you wind up with pneumonia or not.”
“Cluck, cluck, cluck,” I said. She flapped at me with the rag she’d been cleaning her hands with. I said, “I won’t be going far tonight since Burt got all those melons. He gave some split ones to the chickens – we’ll save some feed as a result – and tomorrow the mess is going to have to be raked up so the mice have less to eat though the rooster has been keeping their numbers down as has the barn owls that have been hanging about.”
“It’s all the mess being left in the fields. Untidy fields and too much fallen fruit draws rodents and other varmints like a big dinner on the grounds draws the back slidden. What are you after tonight?”
“Mostly hickory nuts but I also want to check on the Fox Grapes.”
“Well take a short nap at least. Those hickory nuts are going to be heavy.”
I didn’t disagree which Barbara probably took as a sign from the Heavens.
“You don’t need to protect me Kay-Lee, I’m older than you are.”
I looked at Barbara and said, “And you don’t need to protect me, but you do. You’re pregnant and shouldn’t be doing half the things you do. But you have to because I can’t.”
She sighed. “You’d probably figure a way to do it yourself if I wasn’t around but … let’s not get into that silly discussion again. I need to help you for my own reasons, and you need the help for yours. And vice versa. Let’s just leave it. But you didn’t need to shut Uncle Mark down. I saw Davis give him a look.”
“I did not want them upsetting you. The Hartford men are not known for their tact and grace,” I said deadpan.
She gave a surprised laugh. “You don’t need to tell me that.” Then she got serious. “Just tell me Kay-Lee. What was in that letter than Uncle Mark thought he was being so sneaky to hand off to you. The Hartford men don’t have any tact or grace, but they also aren’t as sneaky as they believe. The Hartford women are better at it. And you, you beat us all hands down. But I can read you now, so give already.”
“I was going to tell you anyway. It’s not as bad as I was afraid of. At least some parts. The parts that are worse? Well they don’t exactly surprise me.”
# # # # #
On the wadded up note pad paper Uncle Mark had written, “Not going to be time to explain all this like I had hoped. Rain slowed us down and dark is coming earlier and earlier and Davis won’t want to leave Cindy alone at night. Thank the Lord my place is as close to Dad’s as it is or I’d never get any work done. The letter holds some information. Doubt you’ll be surprised by much of it. Linda, Jeannie, and some of the other girls have sent you notes. See what you can make of them. I promised not to read them. Pearl wanted to send a note but she wasn’t sure how well it would be received and didn’t want to cause problems. If you don’t mind, I’m going to tell her to stop worrying about it. You two are going to have to work things out though how you will with all that’s going on I’m not even going to try and mess in. Women. Your highest priority seems to be driving us men crazy. I see you didn’t want me to say anything to Barbara. You read this letter and decide for yourself but in my opinion you can’t protect everyone from everything. I was hoping that Thomas was wrong and Sawyer and Huely, at least one of them, would have been back. Them two boys are needed, and not just by you and Barbara. Dad is getting worried. We all are. You’ll understand. Isn’t any way to put much of this in a good light.”
# # # # #
“Kay-Lee?”
I startled out of my wool-gathering. “Sorry.”
“You’re exhausted. If … I mean …”
“No. We need to talk this out. I just don’t know how to start.”
“Start with my parents,” she said. “That’s all I really want to know about on that side.”
# # # # #
Girl, as a precaution I am writing this all out. I’m not too worried about it falling into the wrong hands. You are about the only one that can read my handwriting. Not even D can and C refuses to even try anymore. However, I’d prefer that once you have read this that you put it some place safe just in case I am wrong. You might even consider burning it after S has a chance to read it … or you read it to him.
I’ll start with UN [Uncle Ned] is positive that you are foraging to keep those in your house fed. I’m fairly positive of that myself but you need to be taking all due caution. None of us took into consideration while we were planning how much our movements were going to be restricted. T is the only one not looked at with suspicion when he travels from homestead to homestead and I’m sure I don’t have to explain why. I’m sure you also understand the boy is being underestimated though he really is only doing what he appears to be doing … checking on family and sharing what little news we get.
There are reasons you need to use caution and it isn’t just the damn inspectors and harvesters. The military, or those claiming to be the military are using county roads and state highways to travel south. Always south which concerns me. I have not seen them, but C’s family has. Just another piece of this damn puzzle that I’m not able to find a place for yet to help make a picture.
The only thing good I can say about that type of military movement is it has curtailed the rustlers in this area. They use hit and run tactics that seem more about opportunity than planned out attacks as they did last year. No more big operations like when they would come in and strip entire fields. Now it is just a nibble here and a nibble there. They seem to be staying away from the gleaning rows. Whether that is because of their proximity to houses or because they don’t want to make an enemy of the farmers I’m unsure of just yet. For all I know it could be both or nothing at all but coincidence. Just don’t be foolish, if you see them just back away. Be cautious, not friendly or helpful. They are not our friends and are likely as bad an enemy as the politicians, just of a different variety.
And speaking of using caution. Tell B not to trust any of her family that might seek her out. They’ve gotten themselves in some hot water with the authorities. Some of their … uh hem … practices came to light after local law enforcement logs were reviewed and an investigation completed. They were also found to be poaching, and by that I mean hunting off their personal property, out of season, and taking more than they were granted to glean. B’s cousins and brother-in-law let their mouths run ahead of their brains and they were arrested and put to hard labor in a work camp someplace. Her parents seem to be doing okay. Same for her sister. Her grandfather not so much but her grandmother is now acting head of the family because her uncle has had some kind of breakdown and removed to the state hospital.
None of those that have been taken off have been heard from since their arrests. Same for others in the area hauled off in the same truck. They said there were investigations, but I wonder who was doing it and how legal the penalties. No confirmation of who all it happened to; I have my suspicions, but that is all they are. No one talks about it. They’ve been told not to talk about it, because if they do things will go much worse for their family members that were taken away as well as the ones left behind. As for the rest of her family, they are laying low; but losing that many is a powerful incentive to try and find a way to help them. Or to seek revenge by informing on others. I’m not saying that will or even might be happening in the community up here but no sense in taking chances. You just keep yourselves to yourselves. Something tells me I don’t have to explain that to you. S told me some of the hard life you had. L and T have told me more than I think they realize as well. And add this to your thinking about whether you are going to comply with what I ask of you, there are still people like those friends of M’s [Mason] around and about. Not as many as before but a few of them have made a name and place for themselves helping the inspectors.
As for this family, I and my brothers have been forced to take a long, hard look at our family. We made some assumptions. Foolish ones at that. I pray that we can survive the asses we have made out of ourselves. The heartbreak and disappointment of some can’t be measured for now.
We’ve had a few of the wives return to their families though none of them have been my sister in laws. Perhaps the marriages in jeopardy can be saved but I doubt all of them will, or all of them want to. There’s a lot of bad blood over some of the break ups, and not just between the couples. Worldviews have had a surprising effect. Not all the girls came from families that were as conservative and traditional as was thought. It certainly caused unexpected problems. I can say none that have children are in that shape though some came close, and a few are still struggling to completely work things out. C and B [Cutter and Beth] were a near thing, but they pulled back from the brink, and it looks like whatever had been eating at the two of them since the beginning is now over. They even had Dad say words in a renewal of their vows a few Sundays back.
Don’t let your bustle cut you in two over this next part. UF [Uncle Forrester] had another spell but after coming out of it has had some return of his speech if not his gait. Strangest thing I have ever heard of, and I don’t know if I trust it to be permanent, but I thought you would want to know. When I found out T hadn’t told you I told him he better wear one of his old football helmets next time he goes to see you as you were likely to take a rolling pin to it. Or worse, have your feelings hurt and cry. I think the latter scares him more than the first.
And now for this, it is sticking in my craw to say it, but it needs saying. If any of the other boys beyond the ones that S was close to come to see you, and perhaps even them, you be very careful what you share. Also be cautious just in case – and God help me for saying it could be true – they attempt to push you around or scare you into complying with whatever they may want. I’m not sure what has gotten into a few of them. And a couple have run their mouths, especially about S. A couple of the boys have run off completely and haven’t been seen in weeks. It worries me, it really does.
I hope S returns soon. The boys are starting to go their own way too much for me to get enough information out of them to figure out what is going on and who all knows about it. They’ve shut D out. He was hurt at first but now he just ignores it and stays with me or Dad. Same for T who some view as little better than a family servant they try and order about. D and T get along better as a work team than I would have credited. They never fought but I didn’t think they had as much in common as they seem to now. Being a father also takes up a great deal of D’s’ time as it did mine when he was little and my wife was still alive. That’s true for all the boys that now have that level of responsibility. It’s the ones whose wives have left or who don’t have children that seem to be a part of whatever is going on. I don’t like it. I don’t like it at all.
Now for this next. Girl you need to use some commonsense. T says you call the unexplained around here haunts and spooks or hobgoblins. I’m going to credit you with a sense of humor and not that you really believe in that nonsense. There are others saying the same thing I don’t credit with any sense at all. Every disappearance is now being put down to this nonsense. People are getting scared, and some scared and ignorant. It isn’t just outsiders this is happening to either. BD [took me a while to realize he meant Brother Don] disappeared for nearly two weeks but came back acting like everyone was making way more of it than they should. But the man was afraid and trying to hide it, and he is just now getting over it after people stopped pestering him to reveal what happened. There’s also been some females that have gone missing, and I don’t think all of them were willing. There’s more of that going on in town but I’d feel better, and know S would too, keeping one of the dogs with you while you are foraging. Better yet, if the inspectors haven’t confiscated it, find S’s pistol and keep it on you. Assuming you can load it and use it without hurting yourself. If there is no ammo or you can’t, don’t bother. An empty gun is nothing but an expensive club and an empty pistol not even that.
And this I hope does scare you into some caution. There’re stories of children disappearing to. Don’t know anyone that it has happened to personally, but the stories persist and where there is smoke there is fire. Make sure the boy understands that. He’s not as wild as S was at that age, or several of the others, but he’s at least half his mother’s family, and has an independent streak and a mouth bound to get him in trouble one of these days.
Let us know when S and H return … and if they don’t. We’ll figure something out.
UM
# # # # #
Barbara looked at me and said, “Typical Uncle Mark. Does he think we can just shut the windows and lock the doors and stay inside until our husband’s come home?”
I finally smiled. “Well I’m relieved I’m not the only one thinking that.” Turning down the wattage and trying not to seem like I was only interested in making a joke I said, “Still, maybe we should go over the house and hide things that could make us a target.”
“Hide them where?”
“The attic? Between you, me, and Burt we could probably figure out a way to cover the attic door.”
“Maybe. But I’d like to know when we’re going to have the time for that little project,” she said, her voice dripping with sarcasm. “We’ve got to do something with all those apples – I’m going to start that as soon as I read the notes from the wives if you don’t mind – and the look on your face says you are going out again tonight whether you wind up with pneumonia or not.”
“Cluck, cluck, cluck,” I said. She flapped at me with the rag she’d been cleaning her hands with. I said, “I won’t be going far tonight since Burt got all those melons. He gave some split ones to the chickens – we’ll save some feed as a result – and tomorrow the mess is going to have to be raked up so the mice have less to eat though the rooster has been keeping their numbers down as has the barn owls that have been hanging about.”
“It’s all the mess being left in the fields. Untidy fields and too much fallen fruit draws rodents and other varmints like a big dinner on the grounds draws the back slidden. What are you after tonight?”
“Mostly hickory nuts but I also want to check on the Fox Grapes.”
“Well take a short nap at least. Those hickory nuts are going to be heavy.”
I didn’t disagree which Barbara probably took as a sign from the Heavens.
Sammy55
Veteran Member
Thanks, Kathy. Hopefully, the haints stay away! I can just see them trying to take Kay-Lee and her giving them h#ll!! I'd LOVE to see that happen! They's probably leave the territory because of that "confoundin' woman" that seems to get the best of them.
But it's a sobering time, for sure, and not one I'd like to experience in person, thank-you-very-much! TPTB can just keep this line of thinking in your story and not putting it in real life.
But it's a sobering time, for sure, and not one I'd like to experience in person, thank-you-very-much! TPTB can just keep this line of thinking in your story and not putting it in real life.
juco
Veteran Member
Every family has one, right? We had great aunt Rosa, who was all about image and how things looked. She would show up for family work days dressed to the nines, complete with stockings and lipstick.
Half the family didn’t know what to make of her, and I’m sure she despaired for us heathens out there picking peaches in pedal-pushers and old T-shirts. lol
Griz3752
Retired, practising Curmudgeon
AND, Wagon Wheels have been around for a while - I remember those from my childhood which was a while ago.
"Not very nice " is being kind.