“Tony, this is Lois Gibson, my girlfriend.” Beforehe could finish what he was about to say, Lois walked over to him, shook his hand, and grinned.
“Feel like doing some grocery shopping?”
“Yes, I found a can of peas in a cupboard and had them for supper last night.”
“Holy shit, I knew I brought a can over here,” the man with the eye patch said with a grin. “I’m Ryan, my wife hates peas with a passion, I love them. I store them in the pantry at one of the big cabins over at Broken, and one day I was helping Manny and thought I brought a can with me to eat. I must have set it down and forgotten about them. Did you have breakfast?”
“I did. I found three eggs and two slices of bread on the counter this morning, along with some coffee items.”
“That was me,” Ducky said as he elbowed his way in, and Tony saw all the men immediately make a path for him. “I knew the kitchen cupboards were empty, by the time I came over last night with the stuff, you were already asleep. I checked on you. Pru, Ryan’s wife has chickens and provides us all with eggs. We had extra, so I brought them over for your breakfast.”
“Thank you.”
“I’ll explain the food situation while we shop,” Lois said as she looked at her watch. “Not to be a stick in the mud, boys, but I want to get to the stores when they open.” They all saw that it was barelyseven in the morning, but they knew the stores opened at eight. They immediately turned, walked out the door, and Lloyd opened the back door to the rental. Forming an assembly line, they were able to unload the entire truck in under thirty minutes.
“No offense, man,” Lloyd said as they closed up the truck. “But you don’t have a lot of stuff.”
“Yeah, after my first operation, when I was released from the hospital, my family thought it would be a good idea to sell, trash, or donate, I’m not sure what it was because they refused to tell me, but they got rid of my living room furniture and put in a hospital bed. Don’t get me wrong, it worked wonders, but after I started to heal I didn’t need the bed any longer, but was too cheap to go out and purchase any more furniture.” He looked at them with a grin. “When I left my house, it’s listed with a realtor, I left the hospital bed right there in the living room.” They all shared a chuckle and when Lois came over to them, she handed Tony a sheet of paper.
“What’s this?”
“Your grocery list, you’re going to need everything.”
Tony nodded and studied the list, then frowned. “There’s no meat on this. I’m not vegan or a vegetarian.”
“I didn’t expect you were, I’ll explain after I pick you up. Do you have money on you?”
“Of course.”
“Okay, again, I’ll explain when I pick you up.” She kissed Cole’s cheek, then went over to her SUV and climbed in behind the wheel.
Tony grinned as he thanked the men, shook their hands, and hurried to the rental truck. An hour and a half later, he walked out of the rental facility, and climbed into the front passenger seat of Lois’ vehicle.
“Now we shop,” Lois said, and explained why she did the grocery shopping, and before they climbed out of the vehicle, he turned to stare at her.
“Are you shitting me, you’re going to plant a garden to feed everyone?”
“Yes, but not until the spring. It won’t be that hard, it will be like everything else on the ranch. If we all pitch in, then the work won’t be that bad. Ducky’s going to help me as much as he can.” She saw the skepticism in his expression, then turned to study him before getting out of the vehicle. “Think of it like this, how much is a can of carrots at the store?” She pointed to the building they were about to enter.
“I don’t know, almost a dollar. Maybe more than that now with the way prices have been going up lately.”
“Correct. Now, I can spend a dollar fifty for a package of carrot seeds, and I can get enough carrots to home can several pint jars of them.” She snorted, then started to giggle when she read a text that just came in. She turned the phone so he could read it.
“What’s that mean?”
“That was from Naomi, the manager of Broken. She’s also Clark’s girlfriend. All the horses on all three ranches receive carrots and apples as treats. They don’t get sugar cubes. Last fall, I was able to put in a crop of carrots at the last minute and it yielded a large amount. However, it was only one growing, and they are almost out. Naomi is reminding me that Erin called in an order for carrots earlier this week. See, if she calls it in, the store manager can order them from his produce guy, and they will be set aside for us. Because there will be several cases, then I’ll go to the service desk, purchase them first, and bring them out to the truck. Once they are loaded, I’ll go back in and get the other stuff.” She pulled an envelope from her purse and started taking lists out, then leaned in to explain. “This is Lloyd and Marcia’s list, the money they gave me is clipped to the list. After the carrots are stored in the truck, why don’t we divide and conquer?”
“I can do that, but again, why is there no meat on these lists, other than pork. I see bacon, and sausages, but no chicken, turkey, hamburger, steak, why is that?”
“Each family, not individuals, but each household gives both Erin and Pru money. As Ducky mentioned earlier, Pru has chickens, but she has two different kinds. I don’t know if you’re any type of farmer or rancher, but she has layers, and meat chickens.”
“Okay, I know the difference between them. Thelayers provide the eggs, and the meat chickens are specially bred to be butchered and provide meat.”
“Correct. Pru and Ryan figure out how much it will cost to send them to the butcher, then he divides the cost per household. Some people throw extra their way, and he uses that to purchase their feed.”
“Ah, so it’s a family enterprise.”
“Correct. The same thing for Erin. Yes, she deals with horses, but she has roughly two to three dozen head of cattle that she raises for beef. Again, we pay approximately two hundred dollars per household and are able to fill our freezers with meat. It’s almost done, but there at New Double, there is a brand new, state-of-the-art building on the other side of the summer kitchen that everyone will benefit from.”
