Behind The Curve-The Farm | Book 3 | The Farm Craven Boyd (the reading list book .txt) 📖

The turnout for the market was double or triple what it usually was.

“I don’t know if all of these folks are feeling emboldened by what we did, or are scared we’re going to get shut down because of what we did and are coming to get what they think might be the last of it,” Angelica told Daniels as she saw both Curt and him approaching.

“Probably a little bit of both,” Curt said. “Andrea doing—?”

“She’s fine. She’s talking to Ella May and Evangeline,” Angelica said, pointing.

“So, what did you want to talk about?” Curt asked Daniels.

“What do you guys plan to do come harvest time?” Daniels asked, looking at the nearly one hundred acres of corn and soybeans.

“Harvest the goodies,” Curt told him.

“I know, but do you plan on selling it?”

“Here, you mean?” Curt asked, confused.

“I think I know what he’s asking,” Angelica said. “When a corn head harvests, it's usually got a truck or large farm grain trailer following behind it. It gets dropped off at a distributor who handles the selling. You’re asking if that’s our plan?”

“Yes, exactly,” Daniels said, nodding.

“Well, I’ll have to get with Rob, but once we’ve set aside and mixed up what we need here for our animals' feed… he’ll have a pretty good idea what we’ll have left over. Honestly, we haven’t gone far into that yet, with the world gone crazy.”

“You’ve got some grain silos,” Daniels noted.

“Yes,” Angel said before Curt could say anything, “but one of those is premixed feed. We have to account for spoilage and things like that. We have a lot more cows than we can fully pasture, so we feed them grain. Helps fatten them up faster than just a grass diet.”

“One thing I’d like you to consider,” Daniels said and then paused as Rob walked up, “is holding onto as much as you can if you don’t need the money.”

“Hold onto what?” Rob asked.

“Grain after the harvest,” Curt told him.

“Ah, yeah, I was meaning to talk to you about that. The only folks who look like they’re buying right now are the Feds,” Rob said. “I figured you might not be too keen on that idea.”

“I’m not,” Curt told him, “but that isn’t just my decision.”

“A group vote?” Daniels asked, curiosity perking in his voice.

“Pretty much,” Curt admitted. “Rob,” he said turning to the big rancher, “how much storage do we have here at the farm for grain?”

“Both silos will hold about half of what we’re going to harvest,” he said, “and they aren’t empty either.”

“Remind me later, I want to ask you about what it would take to store the corn and soybean outside of the silos.”

“A whole lot of room,” Rob said with a grin, dropping Curt a wink. “But remember this, I’m going to need about two hundred and forty pounds of corn per acre to re-seed. I don’t have the figures memorized by soybean though.”

“What do you think our yields will be like?” he asked.

Rob smiled at that. “Between nine and ten thousand pounds per acre of corn.”

Curt started sputtering, and Angel laughed at that. Daniels looked on thoughtfully, then thanked them and wandered back up front to where Kerry was.

Two

Roscoe was following the boy. Ranger was following the boy too, or Roscoe, but Roscoe wasn’t for sure. He knew the boy was his to protect. His big alpha and Ranger had both insisted. So, that’s how Roscoe found himself laying down near a patch of berries, while Harry and Goldie picked late season blackberries that grew wild near the woodlot.

“How many we have to get, Grandma?” Harry asked.

“Oh, I want to fill up my big mixing jar,” she told him. “We’re going to be making a pie later on, and if we get enough, I might make you some jelly.”

“I really like jelly,” Harry told her.

“I know you do. Do you have the radio turned on?”

“I do Grandma, you can hear Momma and the others talking out of it. Do you want me to turn it up?”

“No, as long as you can hear it, I’m fine with that.”

Ranger followed them close, staying a few yards behind them. He was alert to everything around him. He resisted the urge to chase the little furry devils that came down out of the trees. Where he’d been born, everything was rocky and sandy. The small creatures he could have chased as a pup, he didn’t. Most of them had stingers or fangs. Here? There were all kinds of creatures he could hunt, chase, and eat. Ranger absolutely loved where he was now, and he loved his new bigger family. He didn’t even mind Roscoe.

Ranger knew he was smarter than Roscoe, but when that big dog wasn’t sleeping, he could be an absolute terror. Ranger thought Roscoe had been made to do two things: track, and kill. Ranger respected that. When it came to those two things, Roscoe was the best, maybe even better than the biggest alpha. That’s why Ranger didn’t mind playing second in the doggo world. He could do more things, more commands. He was content with his role…

Roscoe snorted in his sleep, lifted his tail, and farted, waking himself up. Ranger let his tongue hang out the side of his mouth in a doggy grin and walked over to the big dog. He nudged him with the side of his head, waking the big dog up more. Then he walked back to the humans he was watching over, and looked back at the big dog. Roscoe got the idea, and joined Ranger in watching the humans. After he’d moved all of three feet, he laid down, his head on his front paws.

“I think you wore out Roscoe,” Goldie told Harry.

“He’s just… lazy,” Harry said with a laugh.

“He’s so big, I think he needs to conserve his energy,” Goldie said, picking in a flurry.

“When we’ve needed him, he’s always been a good boy,” Harry told her.

Roscoe chuffed.

“Yes, he has,” Goldie said, thinking of all the times the