# Car 54

####
© 2005 / revised 2014
K Pelle

### Chapter 49:
Slow - Rough Road Ahead

The day of the housewarming party for the new houses up on the plateau was finally set for the second Sunday evening in July, which happened to be Matt and John's weekend off. That gave them some extra time to attend to details around their new house, but it didn't place undue pressure on me either. Sure, I had the chores to do, but other than that I was only planning to do some running around and attending to details to make sure I had all my ducks in a row for the next week or two. We were going to redo the road that came down the gorge in those two weeks and I was hoping that the good weather we'd had the last two or three weeks would hold. Actually even a light rain wouldn't hurt, but if we had a lot of subsoil material loosened, but ungraded, then got hit by a gully washing rainstorm things could get darn messy in a hurry.

So I was up early on the day before the party, sitting in the kitchen, having my coffee before doing the chores and I'd turned on the radio to hear the weather forecast. That mornings weather forecast sounded good, the weatherman was predicting a dry weekend and more fine weather to come during the week. I suppose I sighed loudly at the relief I felt at that forecast.

"Wow, I haven't heard you sigh like that for a long time," Sandy commented as she came into the kitchen. "Problems?"

"No, actually that was a sigh of relief," I chuckled. "The weather forecast for next week sounds pretty good. If we're lucky, we just might get away with our gamble and get the toughest part of the road in before the weather turns bad on us."

"Oh, gotcha," she came over and collected a hug, then took a sip from my coffee. "Gaachhh, how do you drink your coffee black and strong like that? It's so bitter."

"Well, for one thing that means you won't steal much of my coffee," I grinned as I drained the last of the cup. "Now, I'd better go do the chores. Oh, if you want to go to town today, I have to go get some fuel, then I'm going to drop around Charlie Engels' place to get some practice and learn some tricks about using his old backhoe. I'll be renting it for the next couple of weeks,"

"Okay, I'll get your breakfast ready when you come in and I think I will come along to town so I can pick up some groceries," Sandy nodded. "Hey before you go out, have you any idea what to get for housewarming gifts?"

"Nope, I was hoping you did. Maybe we can think of something on the way to town."

My morning started out being smooth and easy. The chores were no problem. Sandy had breakfast ready by the time I had come inside and cleaned up to go to town. The trip to town went quickly and we decided to buy a potted rose bush for each housewarming gift, so those were the first things we bought when we got to town. Then I dropped Sandy off to shop for groceries while I went to Frank's service station to get a few barrels of diesel fuel and gasoline just so we'd have enough for our upcoming road work. That's when things started to get complicated. I dropped by to say 'Hi' to Frank and found he wanted me to run Car 54 that weekend. That's when I reminded him about the housewarming parties and that it was my weekend to stay home to do the chores anyway.

"Oops, I think I've got my weeks mixed up," he sighed, looking at the calendar. "Clarence Walker will be at the housewarming too, won't he?"

"Unh huh. Since he and his crew built them, I'd think he'd want to be there if only to show off his hard work as well as support his two best workmen."

"Oh, that's not so bad then. You do know that the two of you are running neck and neck in driver popularity poles at the track, don't you?" he broke into a big grin at my grimace.

"You know darn well I'm not out there for a popularity contest," I snorted. "I just race because I like the competition. Will you be at the party tomorrow night? Maybe we can talk then, but right now I've got to get some fuel and then I need to be out at Charlie Engels' place in a little while."

"Okay, but why don't you just leave your empty fuel drums with me. I'll get the refills loaded on a truck and bring them out to you tomorrow, that way you're not hauling a heavy load on your pickup while you do your running around."

That sounded good to me, but I was wondering what his wife would say about driving out to the ranch in his old fuel truck. I was smart enough not to ask him that though. Instead I left Frank a note of what fuel I wanted and quickly unloaded the barrels from my pickup, then drove out to Charlie Engels. I got there just as he drove into his yard. Charlie actually apologized for not being able to do my road work because he had a prior job underway, but as I told him, he should be happy that he was so busy that he couldn't do the job himself. Since he was renting the backhoe, he was making even more money than he would if he was just doing the one job and I assured him if I broke something on the machine I'd pay for its repair. After we filled out the rental agreement, he took me out to his 'backup' backhoe and showed me how to operate it, even letting me dig a couple of holes and then backfill them, just to prove that I knew how to run it.

The rest of my day followed in almost the same pattern. I ran back to town from Charlie's place, picked up Sandy and her load of groceries, then took her to the Chinese cafeteria for lunch. After lunch we drove to the hospital to talk to Grampa Bender. Then we were off to Jason Campbell's, since he lived on our way home and I helped him load his D6 Cat on his lowboy trailer. I was leasing the D6 for the next month as well, needing it for the roadway work as well as a couple of grading jobs I wanted to do on the trails around the ranch. Once the Cat was loaded, he followed me home and we unloaded it right at the crest of the grade I'd be working on come Monday. I started it up, then backed it into the bush to get it out of sight of anyone driving past on the road. Once that was done, I got back in the pickup and drove down to the cabin, then helped Sandy carry the groceries inside. We had a quick cup of coffee, but we thought it was time for a ride around the ranch to check over the cattle to see if they were all okay. I saddled a pair of horses so Sandy could ride with me, then even though they were scattered all over, we managed to find a full count of cows and calves, but we didn't notice any problems. That ride took a while though, so after we were back at the corrals and the horses were put away, it was time to do the chores. Once I was finished the few chores that needed doing I went inside, cleaned up, ate supper, then flopped in my favourite chair with a cup of coffee. It seemed to me that I hadn't really done much that day, but run around. Still, I was bushed. Sandy and I talked for a while, made a few phone calls, then decided we were just too tired to stay up, but after we were in bed it seemed to take a long time to get to sleep.

Sunday morning I was awakened very early by the squawking of chickens and barking of the dogs, so I rolled out of bed, raced downstairs and rushed outside. I couldn't believe my eyes, there was a cougar lying on the top of the chicken coop roof, calmly chomping away on one of our hens. The dogs weren't getting close to the chicken coop, but they were barking up a storm. Meanwhile the chickens were making almost as much racket by flapping and squawking as they dashed around the chicken run.

"Damn!" I swore loudly and turned to go back inside to get my rifle, almost knocking over Sandy, coming the other way.

"Oops, What wrong, Chris?" Sandy asked.

"There's a bloody cougar after the chickens."

"What? A cougar? Here?" she squawked in surprise.

"Yeah, a friggin' cougar," I snapped, grabbing my 30-30 off the wall by the kitchen door and loading a round. "I hate the idea of killing it, but since it's made a kill already, I'll have to shoot the darn cat. I'm glad all it killed was a chicken though, and not a calf or a colt."

"Do you really have to shoot it?" Sandy frowned at the rifle.

"Yes, I do," I sighed as I stepped outside again. "You know I try to leave the wild animals alone, but when one starts killing my livestock I have to take care of the problem. I'm probably going to regret it though, since I'll have to report the damn thing to the game warden."

I had been planning to have a quiet day, but the bloody cougar certainly ruined that pipe dream. Shooting it was the simplest part of the whole fiasco. I've hunted a fair amount, so I knew enough to go for a heart and lung shot, hitting the cougar just behind the shoulder, then when it fell off the roof I put another round into it's head. After that though, I had to keep the dogs from ripping the cat to pieces by locking them in the barn, then I had to call both the RCMP and the District Game Warden. Luckily, I was smart enough to leave the cougar where it had fallen as it slid off the chicken coop, but I had to wait around for the Game Warden to check it out. Still, I had oodles of time to do my chores and have breakfast long before anyone arrived. Sandy and I had been planning to drive down and have lunch with my family, but the RCMP Constable and the Game Warden must have taken their time. Of course it was Sunday, so I suppose they were either feeling a bit reluctant to hurry, or else they were overworked, who knows? Sandy must have called down to my folks and invited them up to the ranch for lunch, because Mom and Dad arrived just before the RCMP Constable and the Game Warden did. Still, I felt as if I'd wasted half of my day, just waiting for them to arrive and get on with their job.

When the offical inspection came, it only lasted about ten minutes. Deacon Marshal, the Game Warden rolled the cat over, pointed to the mangled front paw on its left side and swore a blue streak.

"Look at that! God Damned leghold traps! They're illegal as hell, but some pissant bastard is still using the fucking things. If I ever catch the son-of-a-bitch, I'll snap one on his fucking balls," he barked loudly. "This is a young cougar, but look at the poor little bastard. He's scrawny, almost starving to death. He's probably unable to move fast enough to catch his normal prey since he's got that buggered up paw, which is why he went after farm animals. This is probably the same damn animal that killed a calf up at Jason Dumfries' ranch last week.

"Well, I didn't want to shoot him, but ..."

"Yeah, I know, you had to do it," he sighed. "Actually, it was probably a mercy, since from the swelling I think there's probably an infection in that front leg. We'll have to take the carcass with us and do some tests for toxins, diseases and other crap. I can see right now that he's flea infested and mangey, poor little bugger."

They borrowed a couple of garbage bags and some duct tape to wrap the cat so they wouldn't get fleas in the cop car and tossed it in the trunk, then left without saying much more. In fact the young RCMP Officer, Constable Franks, had hardly said anything the whole time they were at the ranch, but then he was young and new to the area, so he was still getting his feet wet.

Once they were gone, Dad and I let the dogs out again, then went inside to find that Sandy and Mom had our lunch ready. When I mentioned that we were going to be working on the road the next morning, Dad was off on his favourite hobby horse, his idea of having a trail cut into the cliff that separated the upper and lower ranches. Now I'm not sure why Dad was so adamant that there should be a trail down that cliff, but for once I was happy about hearing his familiar arguments because it got us off the topic of that dang cougar.

Once we'd eaten, Mom and Dad wanted to discuss all the recent work and improvements that we'd done around the ranch. Then both of them absolutely had to go for a walk along with me so they could see the proposed new grade we planned to cut into the side of the gully leading up to the upper plateau. All I could really show them right then were the scale drawings and the layout stakes that the surveyor had left us, but I think Mom approved of the whole idea. Dad had a hard time accepting the idea that a combination of carragana windbreaks and new grading on the roadway would solve the worst of our drifted snow problems, after all he'd seen how much snow could drift into that gully during a blizzard. Personally all I could do was hope that the surveyor was right and Dad was wrong, otherwise our upcoming work was going to be a waste of money. That new roadway wasn't going to be cheap though, not with the rental of a backhoe and a D6 Cat, as well as hiring a blaster, not to mention the wages for at least four people who'd probably be on that job for nearly two weeks. Still, I'm not sure why Dad was being so obstinant in his condemnation of the surveyor's plan, but I knew that if we were badly snowed in next winter, I'd certainly get the 'I told you so' treatment in spades.

Mom and Dad had to leave around two-thirty in order to be done the work around their farm before going to the housewarming party, and they must have met Frank Dolens and his wife on the road home. I'm sure of that, because Frank and Jennifer came driving into the yard only moments after Mom and Dad had left. The Dolens were riding in a brand new one-ton pickup truck with dual wheels and a hydraulic barrel-lift mounted on the box. Of course Frank had wanted to show it off to someone before he turned it over to his fuel crew and his wife thought the idea of riding in a fuel truck to go to the housewarming party was hilarious. Besides that, although Frank had visited the ranch a few times, Jennifer had never been there before. Of course that was an opportunity for Sandy to show off her garden and the house, so we ended up having coffee and talking until it was time to do the chores. Frank even walked around with me while I chased the chickens inside, then fed the riding horses, the pigs and the dogs. The Dolens even sat on the front porch and waited for Sandy and I as we dressed and got ready to head up the hill to the party. Actually we followed Frank and Jennifer up the hill in my car, but we got separated before we went into the McAdam's house, which was our first place to visit that evening.

Matt and his brothers had built a log cabin and so had Carissa and Jackie, but the similarity in their houses ended with the log walls. The guy's house was a sprawling single story affair that took up a huge amount of space and sat about a hundred yards from the municipal road, but almost equally distant from the road to the ranch. Meanwhile, the gal's house was a two story affair, that looked as if it had been lifted out of a turn of the century novel. It sat further back from the municipal road, but less distant from our road. As well as that, while the guys had yet to build any outbuildings, other than the pumphouse for the well, the gals had also built a two car garage and had a horse barn nearing completion.

Actually, the party started about five o'clock on a Sunday afternoon in early July and we planned to spend a few hours at each cabin. We all met at the guy's huge log house first, because they had built a big patio and barbecue in their backyard so they were going to feed us. Then after we'd eaten and looked around their place, we all planned to wander over to the girl's house later in the evening.

Luke met us on the front step as we arrived at the guy's house, waving us through with a quiet; "Welcome to our new house. Just make yourself at home," then he was turning back to meet the next guests to arrive.

Sandy and I entered through an enclosed front porch, passed through the front door, and found we could move into either the galley style kitchen area on our right, or the living room area on our left. Really the only separation between the two areas, was an island set up as a countertop, with a few stools where the guys could sit for a cup of tea or a quick meal. Actually, the kitchen looked almost like an afterthought since it took up the least room in the whole space, but it was a complete kitchen, even if it was small and simple. Of course Sandy wanted to see the kitchen right away, but Matt met us and soon convinced us to look at the rest of the house first, explaining that Mark should be there to give Sandy a tour of 'his' kitchen. Unfortunately Mark happened to be out at the barbecue, playing chef, so Matt was the one who showed us their new home.

In between the galley kitchen on one end and a fireplace on the other, the guys had a collection of old couches, chairs, a television and a small pool table. They had set up the pool table so it doubled as their dining room table when they had guests; all they had to do was slide a wooden cover on top of it, then pull up some stacking chairs for seating. In other words the place was set up as a bachelor pad.

Matt explained that each of his brothers wanted a bedroom of his own, plus there was a fifth bedroom if they ever had visitors, so the bedrooms and bathrooms were laid out around three sides of the living room/kitchen area. Each of the guy's bedrooms was on one corner of the house and to prevent jealousy each bedroom was the same size as the next and all of the rooms were entered from that central core. Matt's bedroom was the closest to the front door and the roadway leading to the ranch, lying to the left of the front entrance. Moving clockwise, Luke's bedroom was on the same side, but at the rear of the house and separated from Matt's bedroom by their shared bathroom and the bedroom closets. As you moved clockwise around the main room of the house, the next doorway lead to an office, which was on the rear wall of the living room area. Beside the office was a hallway that lead outside, but on the way there was another bathroom near the back door. On the other side of the hallway the guys had installed folding doors, the first set hiding a chest type freezer, and the next set hid their washer and drier. Back in the living room, but further along the back wall came the doorway into the spare bedroom. Then on the kitchen end of the living room was a doorway into John's bedroom and another into Mark's, those bedrooms also had shared a bathroom and closets. That took you around the outer circle of bedrooms and back to the front of the house.

Of course by the time we got to that point, Sandy just had to look over the kitchen, even if it was just a quick glance. The kitchen sink was on a short counter on the front wall of the house, with a window which faced the municipal road right above it. For appliances, they had a refigerator, an electric stove, and a dishwasher near the sink, all spaced along the shortest wall of the main room and sharing a wall with Mark's bedroom. According to Matt they had put it there because Mark enjoyed cooking, so if anyone was in the kitchen, it'd probably be him and he wouldn't disturb anyone else if he was working there early in the morning.

I'll be honest, the kitchen wasn't of much interest to me at first, however they had one appliance which I'd never seen before, something called a 'radar range' or 'microwave oven.' I didn't pay much attention to it at first, not until after we'd eaten and Mark came inside to demonstrate it to Sandy and all the other women. They all seemed fascinated by how fast that thing would boil water or cook an omlette. Soon there were so many women clustered near Mark that I wandered away, then George's dad, Bob, bent my ear and explained the technology of microwave ovens to me.

"Chris, I think that microwave oven thing is a great idea, but I'm not sure how reliable it is since it's newly on the market. I've read about them, but I never saw one before," Bob grinned at me. "That darn thing cooks food by using radio waves, well actually microwaves. There's a unit called a magnetron in the oven enclosure which puts out high frequency radio waves. Those radio waves cause vibrations in the water moleules inside the food, virtually shaking the molecules back and forth so fast that they cause friction, then get hot and boil. That's what cooks the food, just plain old friction, and it virtually cooks the food from the inside, not the outside, so there's no energy wasted on heating up a pot or the air around it."

"Wait a minute, weren't some of the men who worked on the DEW line made sterile by working while they were in the beam of microwaves from the radar installations?" I frowned at his smile. "Is that thing safe to have in a house? I sure as heck wouldn't want to be sterilized by a damn machine. I still might want to have a kid or two one day."

"Oh, you don't have to worry about that. What you heard was just an old wives tale," he chuckled. "The way that machine is built, it won't even turn on until that door is closed and then the microwaves can't get out. That's why the whole thing is made of metal, except for the window on the front door, and that has a grounded metal screen imbedded inside the glass. Those microwaves have been tamed, and on top of that they're being kept in a cage to keep people safe from harm."

Even I had to grin at the idea of equating microwaves and zoo animals, but by then I'd made up my mind that after all the women had seen enough entertainment, I was going to have a good look at the machine. Only I didn't get a chance to even mention that to Bob before Sandy was grabbing my arm to drag me back to the kitchen area and the semicircle of women around Mark.

"Chris, you've got to see this thing. It's wonderful. Mark put an ice cube in there on a little plate and you could see it melt, right before your eyes. Just think of how much time that could save if we had to defrost something for a meal and we were in a hurry. I think we should have one for down at the ranch. I know it's expensive, but it would be so handy to be able to do the things it can do," she prattled on, her mouth going a mile a minute as she dragged me over to see Mark's continuing demonstration.

I wasn't surprised when Bob followed along, but I was surprised when he began to ask leading questions of Mark, then I thought about it and felt he had to have a reason for them, so I sat back and listened without comment.

"Excuse me Mark, but what happens if you use a metal pan to cook the food in that thing?" Bob asked, feigning innocence.

"Oh, you don't want to do that," Mark answered instantly. "This oven is called a 'radar range' for a reason; it uses very short radio waves to cook the food. If you put a piece of metal in the cooking section, it attracts the radio waves and causes sparks. It might even cause an overload and burn out parts in the oven. You shouldn't even use things like aluminum foil or stirring spoons in it, because it will do the same thing."

"Well just what kind of dishes can you cook in? Are they special in any way? Say I wanted to heat up a can of soup, what would I need to put it in? Could I just use an ordinary soup bowl?"

"That depends on the soup bowl," Mark smiled at Bob. "Some soup bowls and other dishes use a glaze with metal in it. If you put a dish with a metallic glaze in this oven, the dish will get hot before the soup even warms up, that might explode the dish. Some china dishes are completely safe and others aren't. It's the same with plastics, some are perfectly safe, while others will just melt. If you want to be really safe, you can buy special dishes that are meant just for this sort of thing. That's what I use."

Since Sandy had released my hand and seemed fascinated by the conversation Mark and Bob were having, I pulled back and stepped away. What the two of them were doing sounded almost like a midway barker and a shill, and I wanted nothing to do with it. It wasn't that I suspected either one of them of doing anything like that though. Instead I was certain that Mark was the proud owner of a new toy, while Bob was someone who had read thoroughly about a new gadget. I was positive that Bob wanted to be certain that any problems and pitfalls the machine had were mentioned, just to counter all the glowing accolades that Mark was using.

Personally, if I could buy one of those ovens that didn't leak microwaves, I could see that it would be a darn handy item to have on the ranch. However, I knew enough about radios and TVs that I wouldn't have one of those machines in my house until I had tested it, and I'd want to do that while it was working using a signal strength meter. I wasn't about to have my balls fried by microwaves since I wanted to remain fertile and active for many more years.

Sandy glanced over at me and I waved one hand toward the rear of the house. She frowned, but came over to talk to me.

"Okay, I've seen that expression before. What's wrong with that microwave oven thing?" she asked quietly.

"I'm not sure that there is a problem with it or not, but you have to admit that it's something new. I'd like to check it out in some way before I get too enamoured with the convenience of using it. If it's safe and relatively reliable, I'm quite willing to buy one, but I won't get one until I'm sure that it's not a waste of money."

"Well, why not ask Mark right now?" Sandy presisted.

"What if he hasn't checked to find out if it is safe and reliable or not? I don't want to embarrass him in front of others if he doesn't know. Since it appears to me to be a great idea, the manufacturers are certainly going to make an all out effort to turn out a reliable product in the long run, but it's new, so I want to be positive, okay?"

"What do you mean safe? What could be unsafe about it?"

"Sandy, it uses high frequency radio or radar waves to cook things. A few years ago there were stories that men who worked with high frequency radar beams became sterile. I think those were just rumours and old wives tales, but I want to know for certain that it isn't going to sterilize me, otherwise it might mean that I wouldn't be able to have kids. Maybe its perfectly safe, but how would you feel if we found out that the microwaves were leaking into the kitchen and would eventually cause damage to our bodies?" I was trying to be quiet but emphatic. "On top of that, if we buy something like that, I want to be sure that it's reliable enough that it won't blow up inside of a month or two of use."

"Oh, okay," she nodded and smiled. "Hey, Carissa and Jackie have gone back to their place, and I want to see their house too. Do you think Matt and the guys would mind if we wandered over there?"

"I can't see why, since we've been here for two hours," I grinned. "Besides, this house is strange and doesn't make me feel real comfortable. It feels kinda cold and impersonal, almost like we were in a motel or something."

"You know, you're right, it does. It just doesn't feel like a home, does it?" she giggled. "I think this is the 'McAdam's Motel,' where my kooky cousins live."

We were both still grinning and chuckling as we walked across the road. Carissa and Jackie's house certainly didn't look like a motel, instead it looked like an older farm house, but one built out of logs. It was another large house, but since it was two stories high and had full porches on the first floor, both front and back, it looked larger outside than it was inside. We'd both been inside it as it was being built and knew that there was a farm style kitchen, a living room, a utility room, a half bath and an office on the main floor. Upstairs there were three bedrooms and two full bathrooms. None of the main floor rooms were as large as those in the guy's house, but as far as square footage went, the girl's house had slightly more living area.

Even though we walked, it only took a couple of minutes before we were stepping onto the gal's front porch and knocking on the door, then being told to "Come on in!"

The difference in the way we'd been greeted at the door said as much about the two residences as anything else could. The guys had built themselves a house, a purely functional shelter from the weather where they could eat and sleep in relative comfort. It was well laid out, and efficient but it felt almost mechanical. In contrast, while the gal's house was just as functional and just as efficient, it already bore the stamp of the two women's personalities. That residence wasn't just a house, even though it was new, it was already a home.

I'd spent a few hours working on both houses while they were being built and there really wasn't that much difference between the way they had been constructed, but there was a major difference in the way they felt once they were finished and occupied. Actually, I can't say that they were really all that similar at any point, because I had noticed differences in the two groups attitudes from the time they had begun planning the two houses. Both of houses had been custom plans, but the guy's house had been laid out around the idea of efficiency and function, while the gal's had put efficiency and function on the back burner, far behind esthetics and design. The final difference in the feeling of the two residences was immense.

A perfect example of what I mean could be taken just from the entrances to the two houses. Each of them had a porch on the front and back of the house. One the guy's house, it was simply a small add-on that acted as a weather shelter for the doorway to the house. On the gal's house, the porch ran the full length of the house, with a lean-to roof over a deck, which could be enclosed by screens in the summer or glass in the winter. That gave the residents a place to relax and enjoy the fresh air, but still remain sheltered from the worst of the weather.

The porches weren't the only differences though. Just the kitchen alone was so different from the guy's that it was impressive. It was a true farm kitchen, with all the normal counters and appliances, but it included space for a table and chairs and the chairs were comfortable. It was the sort of place where friends could drop in, then relax while having a cup of coffee or tea, then have a friendly chat about their lives or the weather. The key feelings in that kitchen were comfort and friendliness. In fact I felt that those two feelings carried throughout the whole main floor of the house. Oh, the office and utility room were more efficient, but they still felt comfortable, not coldly mechanical. Overall the house felt warm and welcoming from the moment we stepped in the front door.

Of course it didn't hurt to be greeted by two extremely good looking and very sexy women who were bound and determined that both Sandy and I needed hugs and kisses to welcome us to their home. I think both of us were given dual promissary notes to be made even more welcome when there weren't so many other guests expected. Actually Carissa reached over and switched off the porch lights and flipped the lock on the door.

"I'm glad you guys came over here so soon. You two haven't seen our bedrooms yet and you deserve to be the first to have a quick peek," she grinned. "We'd like to show you around upstairs before the ravening herd gets here."

With that she grabbed my hand and almost dragged me toward the stairs, but I saw at a glance that Jackie was doing the same thing with Sandy, only Jackie was giggling like a school girl. We had to run to keep up to the two of them and I broke into laughter, while Sandy started to giggle just like Jackie. At the top of the stairs, Carissa pointed to the left, then hauled me that direction and pelted a few feet to throw open a door and lead me through.

I'd never been on the upper floor from the time the log walls and roof had been installed, so all I could do was gasp at what I saw. The room took up all of the end of the upper floor from side to side and had windows on all three sides, in other words it was huge. It had to be huge though, because it held two identical queen sized beds, separated by a folding screen and matching bedside tables.

"See, this side is mine, and that side is Jackie's," Carissa broke into a grin. "We can sleep alone, or we can share just one bed. The screen can be used when one of us gets grouchy and wants to be alone, or if we have a special guest or two over."

"Yeah, you two have a standing invitation," Jackie giggled like a school girl again.

I think both Sandy and I were speechless. I know I was, but only because I didn't know what to say. At the moment I was still trying to take in the overall effect of the room, and that may have been part of my reluctance to say anything. The whole effect of our rush up the stairs and then the overall effect of the room was something I really hadn't expected and I'm uncertain what I should say or do.

I can't say the room's decorations were frilly, but they were decidedly feminine. The word which instantly popped into my mind was boudoir, but even that was wrong, because each side of the room expressed a different personality. You could literally see that each of them had selected the decorations for their individual areas. Carissa's taste was 'tamer,' more toned down, while Jackie's side was more on the extravagantly feminine side. Overall though, the thing which impressed me the most about that bedroom was the odour. It not only looked feminine, the room even smelled feminine.

I was trying to think of some comment when we all heard a knock on the door downstars.

"Oh darn," Jackie squeaked. "I'll go."

"Yeah, darn is right," Carissa sighed. "I'd better run down and greet folks as well. You two can look around and make yourselves at home. We can talk later."

With that, she was gone, so Sandy and I were left alone. Sandy grabbed my hand, looked up at me, then grinned and giggled.

"Can you say seduction central?" she managed to snicker quietly.

"Carissa's carnal cat house?" I chuckled.

"Definitely something like that ... but I think you're leaving Jackie out of it ... and she might be the more outrageous of the two."

"Probably, and you know that one night they're going to find some way to trap both of us here, don't you?"

"Mmm hmm," she shivered as if she felt a sudden thrill. "Actually one night might not be bad, but I think I'd get awfully tired of this room, awfully fast."

"Ditto" I laughed. "Let's go see who else has shown up, shall we?"

With that, we went back downstairs where we found that Mom and Dad had shown up, along with the Coulters and the Dolans, but they were just the first of the crowd that wandered in and out of the house. In fact it wasn't long before John Coulter buttonholed Dad and I, wanting us to come out to the new barn that was being built to look it over, asking us if we had any suggestions on how to make it any better for keeping horses. I couldn't really see anything that needed to be changed and I said so, kidding him that he was the one who'd raised more horses than Dad or I ever had. I knew I was right about that because I'd found that he and Frank had kept a small herd of Thoroughbreds which they'd raced quite often.

"Hell we didn't do much, we had a crew of two or three men who looked after the stable and the horses, and another man who'd been a trainer before he retired, so he just came around for a couple of days a week," John shrugged his shoulders. "Mostly Frank and I just paid the bills and decided which races we'd enter. Carissa says if I'm keeping horses here though, I need to be more involved."

"Hmmph, you do know that this area is high desert, don't you," Dad grunted. "There won't be enough graze on ten acres to support even one animal through the year."

"I don't know if I mentioned it to John, but I certainly explained that to Carissa," I snorted. "She just insisted that they could feed them year 'round."

"Hmm, is there any way we can improve the grass so there would be better grazing?" John frowned.

"Well, I'd talk to the District Agriculturalist, if I were you. After all, it's his job to help folks with farm problems and since he's on the government payroll, his advise is free. I don't know what you can do here though. First off you've only got a couple of inches of poor quality topsoil, then under that is hardpan clay. Any rain falling up here on the plateau just runs off, that's why there are so many erosion gullies on the slopes. I'm sure there's enough rain to grow grass, if you could just hold onto it," Dad offered.

"First off, the soil lacks humus, which is just decayed plant material, but that's what holds the moisture. I've already hauled a few truckloads of manure up here for Carissa to rototill into the patch she wants to use as a garden. Since I buy straw from grain farmers to use as bedding, the manure I brought for her to use will all break down into humus. The thing is it takes a lot of manure to do an acre of ground. That's not the worst problem though," I sighed. "That damn clay hardpan is the real problem. Like Dad said, the water just goes down a couple of inches, then the topsoil layer is saturated and any more rain just puddles on the surface, then runs off."

"I thought clay just turned into muck when it got wet," John questioned.

"Not when it's been packed hard and baked by the sun for hundreds of years, it doesn't," I snorted. "You don't want to plow the soil and turn it over either, because then you'd lose what little topsoil you have left. That's what happened here when the first owners homesteaded the place. They plowed the topsoil under and lost it. Maybe you could get away with using a cat and a ripper to break up the hardpan. What do you think, Dad?"

"Perhaps, you might get away with it on this ten acre patch. After all, it's quite level here. Further out in the part that was fields before you'd have to follow the contour of the land though. If you went up and down grade, the water would start to erode away along the rips, and that would do more damage than good."

"Say, Dad, you've got a three blade ripper for your little cat, don't you?" I grinned. "Maybe you could bring it up and let John try it out?"

"Huh, fat chance of my doing anything with that. The only cat I know anything about has fur, goes meow and chases mice," John snorted. " Since I can't make one of those do what I want it to do, I doubt if I could make a dang tractor do any better."

"Well, John, you could always hire someone to do it for you," Dad looked at me and winked.

What John hadn't known was that I'd arranged with Dad to use the cat and the rippers to do some roadwork on the cut down into the valley, and I'd mentioned the problem of the hardpan to Matt and Carissa. Matt understood the problem, and had already arranged with Dad and I to use the cat and the rippers to do his and Carissa's garden areas on the next couple of weekends. At that time I'd suggested that they do the whole area, with the exception of the areas where they planned to build anything premanent, such as buildings or roadways, but Matt had thought it would take too long. So, I was trying to use John as a goad to get Matt to do a lot of the area around the two houses because I thought two days was lots of time to run the soil ripper over about eighteen or nineteen acres. When I explained what I was trying to get Matt to do, John was all for it. Then of course he wanted to know why I wasn't going to do the rest of the half-section that I owned.

"It's a matter of time and money, John. I have too much to do on the ranch to spend either time or money up here on the plateau this year," I sighed then. "Next year or the year after that, I may get to it, but when I do I want to rip it in late summer so that the fall rains and the snow melt will go down into the broken up clay. Before I can rip it though, I'd need to put a tractor out there with a brush hog, just to chop down all the crap that has grown back since it was homesteaded. Then in the early fall, I'd have to either lightly disk or cultivate the area to turn under the weeds and such that I'd chopped down earlier. After that, if it was still early enough in the fall and there was enough soil moisture, I'd seed a mixture of dryland grass seed and either clover or alfalfa on the whole thing. If it was too late, I'd have to wait for the spring, but if I could establish some sort of grass that would self-seed and take over from the native grasses I might just end up with some acreage that I could cut for hay. Anything would be better than the weeds and scrub brush that you find out there now, but I'm not about to jump into doing it in any hurry. It's really a long term idea because even if I had the time and the money to do it this year, it would be at least two or maybe three years before I'd get any return out of it, and it might not pan out at all. In other words, it's a hell of an investment for a very iffy result."

"I thought you had to keep a large percentage of the area in 'natural condition,' or did Carissa get that wrong?" John asked.

"Only on the leased lands, John," Dad smiled. "Chris bought this half-section of land from Grampa Bender, who bought it from the original homesteaders, so Chris can treat the whole thing as farmland if he wants to waste the time and money on it. I think he's being very optimistic about any return on the land though. I think it would be as much as five years before he knew whether he could get a decent hay crop or not, and to be honest, I don't hold out much hope even then."

"Well, Dad, the D.A. said it should work, if the weather cooperates."

"The D.A?" What does the District Attorney have to say about growing grass?" John looked at me with a frown on his face.

"Sorry John, wrong D.A," I chuckled. "I was talking about the District Agriculturalist. He's the guy I mentioned who could tell you what kind of grass to plant on any grazing land for your horses. I've already had him out to the ranch a couple of times this spring, just getting his advise on some little projects I have planned for the future."

"Oh, what sort of projects would that be?"

"Well, to start with on Monday morning we're going to start tearing up the roadway going down the cut, then we'll completely rebuild it. The D.A. brought out a surveyor to look it over and advise me about grades, the depths we need to make the ditches beside the road, stuff like that. He's also arranged with the county to drop off an old sheepsfoot packer to use to pack the road and he might even be able to get me some used culverts that they've replaced with bigger ones. We'll be putting in a spreader dam at the outflow of the ditches on the bottom end of the grade too, that way we won't cause too much damage to the creek from erosion or pollution off the road," I paused and thought about some way to to convince John to talk to the D.A. "I like the D.A. He's been out here several times over the last couple of years and I think he's impressed with a few things I've done. He really liked the fact that I've protected the creek by fencing the cattle away from the most vulnerable creek banks so their hooves won't cause major damage. He's a really nice guy and he knows what he's doing, so he does a darn good job. Heck, he even arranged for some rainbow trout fry to be stocked in the top lake, so in a couple of years we might be able to catch trout in the lake and even the deeper parts of the creek."

"You keep surprising me with the people you meet and the deals you make," John shook his head slowly, making Dad laugh.

"Surprising you? John, he's been surprising Liz and me for years," Dad slapped John lightly on the shoulder. "The real surprise would be if he didn't surprise us for a while."

"I'll work on it, Dad," I grinned. "Right now I think we should go surprise the ladies by going inside. Otherwise they're going to think we left for home without them."

The gal's house was a madhouse. There were people everywhere, all talking and enjoying themselves, but since I expected to have a long hard week, starting the next morning, I went looking for Sandy, but she found me first.

"Chris, I've been looking all over for you," she greeted me with a hug as John, Dad and I walked into the house through the side door into the kitchen.

"Well, you found me. Now, what can I do for you?" I grinned at her as I paused while John and Dad carried on into the house.

"You can take me home, before we get shanghaied into spending the night up here, which is what Carissa is trying to arrange," she said, speaking quietly.

Since I wanted to get started on the road work early the next day, I thought her idea was a good one. We left word with Mom that we were leaving, then we slipped away.

Luckily I had parked so I could get the car out easily and we were able to leave without disturbing anyone else at either of the parties. Once we were underway, Sandy wanted discuss two things to the exclusion of anything else, Mark's 'microwave' oven and the main bedroom in Carissa and Jackie's house. Those two things kept her talking all the way back to the ranch and even while we were greeted enthusiastically by all three dogs. After we went inside, she put on the pot to make us a cup of cocoa.

I'm afraid I got bored with her prattle and slipped off to my office to add a few bills to my ledger. Then, after Sandy brought me a cup of cocoa and accused me of hiding, I joined her out in the living room.

"So, what do you have planned for projects for this summer, Chris?" she asked quietly.

"Well as you know the first project is to improve the road that comes down the gully from up top," I shrugged. "I've got Charlie Engels old backhoe coming tomorrow and we can use that to dig drainage ditches we need on each side of the roadway. When Charlie delivers that backhoe, he's also bringing along his son-in-law who does blasting so he can start drilling blast holes in the big shale ledge we need removed. Matt and I will mostly be running the two cats though. Matt will probably be using Dad's D4 Cat and the ripping teeth to loosen the base, while I'll be using the D6 Cat to shove the loose soil and rock into some semblance of a road grade. Once the guys from the county bring us that sheep's-foot packer I've borrowed, John can use the Massey to pack whatever grade we've built."

"Oh, talking about John and the packers, did Tom get that sprayer bar for the water truck made, so I can wet down the grade before John runs over it?" Sandy asked.

"Yeah, and I fitted that on the tail end of the truck yesterday," I nodded.

"Okay," she said quietly, then she yawned deeply.

That started it and in moments both of us were yawning. So, even though we'd just gotten home, we traipsed upstairs and snuggled together in the bed, but somehow the subject of my other coming projects got forgotten.

Once we were comfortable Sandy chortled. "By the way, did you notice Matt's special buddy was following him around tonight?"

"What special buddy?" I asked. "are you saying that Matt has a 'special' friend that I didn't know about?"

"The little dark haired girl, the one in the blue dress and the white vest," Sandy giggled. "Your first real date, but she seems to have set her eyes on Matt now."

"My first real date?" I frowned. "Do you mean Debbie Yarowski?"

"Bingo, the man wins the prize," Sandy teased. "Carissa introduced the two of them when Debby's dad was doing the layout for their septic systems, she's been going out with Matt ever since."

"Wow, Lucille will owe Carissa big time if that works out," I yawned, but she didn't answer.

I'm afraid that since I'd been up early that morning to deal with the cougar and then had been gabbing with people all day, I felt almost as tired as I had the night before. I think I'd rather do hard physical work all day, I'm almost positive I feel less tired in the evenings when I do. I rolled onto my side and quickly fell asleep.

### Chapter 50