Home Coming (The Survivalist Book 10) A. American (read after .txt) 📖

some grapes today. Thought we would process them down into juice for you.”

“Grapes?” Kay asked as she leaned over the bucket. “Oh my, that looks amazing. I can make jelly out of that for sure!”

“We have to get the juice ready first. This isn’t like commercial grapes.”

“What do you have to do other than smash and strain them?”

“Once we’ve strained it through a cheesecloth or something, the juice needs to sit in the fridge for a couple of days. Wild grapes have tartrate. It forms gritty little crystals that will really irritate your throat. It’ll even burn your hands if you handle it too long.”

“The juice will?” Danny asked.

“We can’t do anything with that,” Kay said.

“Sure, you can. Once it settles, you just pour the juice off and leave the gray sludge behind. It makes up a lot of the juice, but we have enough to make jelly for sure.”

“Ok, Morgan, if you say so,” Kay replied.

“Trust me on this one,” I replied with a smile and took a sip of the tea.

“Kay, Morgan’s been eating weeds as long as I’ve known him. He’s taught me some things too. I trust him,” Danny added.

Kay smiled, “Oh, I trust him. Just having a little fun.” She turned and looked at me, asking, “Are the girls back yet?”

“They weren’t when I came over here. Soon as we strain this juice, I’ll go home and wait on them.”

“Then I’ll get you a cloth too,” Kay said as she disappeared into the house.

She returned with a cheesecloth and large bowl. We dismissed the kids to go back to the sprinkler and I held the cloth over the bowl while Danny poured the juice through it. Once the bucket was empty, I twisted up the cloth and started to wring it out.

“I thought you said it would burn your hands,” Danny said.

“Only if you don’t rinse your hands soon after handling the juice. Or if you’re working with the juice for a long time. Then it will burn you. This will only take a minute.” With the juice squeezed from the cloth, I went out the door into the yard.

“Where are you going?” Danny asked.

“To spread these seeds around the pond. Maybe we’ll get a bearing vine to grow here!” I called back.

I walked around the pond and spread the seeds and skins in large handfuls. Naturally, the kids followed me and ended up splashing around in the pond, chasing minnows and tadpoles. Edie fell forward into the tea-colored water and I had to fish her out. But she was laughing; and before I knew it, all the kids were in the pond. I managed to fish them all out and herded them to the back to the sprinkler.

As we walked back, Little Bit grabbed my hand, “Daddy, daddy! We need to feed Ruckus!”

“I’ll do it, baby. I’m about to head to the house anyway.”

“Can I come and feed him?”

I patted her head, “You stay here and play with your friends. I’ll take care of it.”

She smiled in the way a child can go from one thing to another in the blink of an eye; and then she ran back to the swirling kids running through the spraying water. I went back into the kitchen to see what Kay was doing with the juice. Thad was there when I came in, working on some of the pork and getting ready to make some sausage.

I slapped him on the back and asked how it was going. He smiled and looked over his shoulder, “Now the work starts.”

“Well, we got more work coming.”

Thad’s brow furrowed, and he asked, with a hint of suspicion, “What’d you do now?”

“Well, I bought a couple of cows. Heifers that are going to calve.”

His eyes went wide, but before he could reply, Kay asked, “Cows? Where did you ever come up with cows?”

I told them the story of seeing the cows while I was picking the grapes and seeing the ranch hands watching over them.

“So, in a day or so, they’re bringing two cows out and then we’ll have four.”

“What’d they cost?” Thad asked.

“I said we’d give them a pregnant sow and three other hogs. That and three hundred gallons of diesel.”

“They gonna trade two cows for that?” Thad asked.

I nodded, “Yep.”

“That’s going to be amazing!” Kay shouted. “We’ll be able to milk them for a long time.”

“That’s a lot of work,” Thad replied.

“But it’ll be worth it,” I replied. “We’ll have all the butter we need, not to mention milk and anything else we can think of.”

“You said they’re bringing them here? Gonna deliver them?” Thad asked.

“Yeah. They’re bringing them in a stock trailer.”

“Where you planning on putting them?” Thad asked.

“I was thinking in the field across the road there. What do you think?”

“In the graveyard?”

“I don’t think anyone over there will mind.”

“Oh, Morgan, that’s just awful,” Kay snapped.

Shrugging, I replied, “Am I wrong?”

“No,” Thad said, “you ain’t wrong. How you planning on watering them?”

“Same way we do the pigs. With the tanker. Just pull the trailer over there and fill a stock tank.”

Thad nodded as he chopped the pork. “I think that’ll work. But if they’re going to be here in a couple of days, we need to get a tank set up over there for them.”

“We do. I’ll see if I can find one.”

“I know where one is. I’ll get it with the tractor and fill it up.”

“You’re my hero,” I replied. “When I grow up, I want to be just like you.”

Thad laughed and shook his head. Kay laughed too, adding, “Morgan, I don’t think you’ll ever grow up that big.”

I looked Thad up and down and said, “What? He ain’t that big.”

Thad cut his eyes to the side and said, “What’er you talking about little man?”

It got all of us to laughing. “On that note, I’m out of here. I have a mouse to go feed.”

“How is that little squirrel doing?” Kay asked.

“Just fine. I think his eyes will open in a few days.”

“When they do, bring