Tipping Point (15 page)

Neil needed to get going, so Billy ran out to turn the truck around and give them a minute to say their goodbyes. Neil ran his hand down her blond hair, his thumb caressing her cheek.

“I’m going to miss you something fierce today, I think.” She leaned her face into his hand.

“I know the feeling. I’m having a ridiculously hard time saying goodbye to you right now for some reason. Must be the cowboy in you.” He chuckled.

“It’s because you’ve had the cowboy in
you
,” he whispered in her ear. She cleared her throat.

“That might be a factor,” she admitted.

“You know how to get there tonight, right? Should be easy enough for you, since I never bothered to conceal my driveway. I knew nobody traveled that road. I may reconsider, though. Especially if Gerry finds out you’re seeing me. I don’t want to have to hide what you are to me, and we’ll see how things go with the police and all that, but your safety is the real priority.

“Alright, I have to get going. Samantha is going to be spitting kittens if we’re not there on time, and I have an errand to run this afternoon, so I need to make sure Billy’s okay for the short time I’m gone. That means doing some more training. Training family members is a pain in the ass, I have to say.”

Mac nodded in sympathy. She knew all about that from her attempts to have her daughter do work for her, instead of her having to work at the factory. It hadn’t gone well.

“Have a good day, cowboy. I’ll be thinking about you plenty, I’m sure.”

“I’ll definitely be thinking of you. Probably forget all about some poor customer at closing time, and lock them in the store like I’m some dreamy high-school kid. Be careful today, honey. I guarantee that kid will be even more pissed off now.” He gave her a long, slow kiss, looked into her eyes for another moment, and then shook it off to walk out the door. Mac went back to the table.

“I forgot to mention to you yesterday that we need to clean out the cement mixer when we’re done with it for the day. I made a mould last night for a stepping stone. If you make a couple different shapes, we can have a nice walkway. Just keep the depth consistent.

“When you rinse the mixer, dump the dirty water where the path will be, so we can keep the rest of the grass nice. We’ll put in flowers in the spring to attract bees for pollination, and if we can get enough, we’ll build some hives for honey. It’s good for wound care, in addition to being a healthier sweetener than sugar.

“Either of you have a bee allergy?” She directed the question at Kirk and Leigh, since she already knew Cameron didn’t have one. When they said they didn’t, Mac continued.

“If Kirk and I aren’t back by about six, please scatter some chicken feed and change out their water. Check for eggs while you’re at it. Don’t forget the roosters. We’ll probably be back before then, but I’m heading to the land registry office in Parry Sound first. I want to see who owns the land around here. It gives us a tactical advantage if we have detailed maps. After that we’re off to the goat farm.”

Five minutes later, Mac and Kirk were in the truck once again, the horse trailer hitched to the back. Within half an hour they were talking to a clerk at the land registry office. There had been no line, so they were served right away. Mac got multiple copies of the maps she needed.

Since things had proceeded so smoothly, Mac decided to grab more of the basic essentials. They filled up the cargo bin again. This time she managed to find the soap base she’d been looking for, so she was content. Finally it was time to track down her elusive goats.

11

P
EOPLE
S
TARING AT
G
OATS

The goat rancher had chickens, too, which pleased Mac. They were Wyandotte, rather than the Sussex she’d purchased from the other farm, though both were good for egg production and harsher winters. She bought twelve, this time only getting a single rooster with the eleven hens. Kirk shook his head.

“They’re going to have to create a new reality TV show called ‘Chicken Hoarders’ just for you.”

“Funny. I’m paranoid, not a hoarder. There’s a difference. I just want to be sure we have enough diversity. Another rooster could make all the difference, despite the difficulties it might cause. Then we won’t have first cousins being mated later on. We can always build a second coop. I’m going to need to start a logbook for breeding.

“Neil having goats is a bonus. We can exchange bucks if we need to, at least for breeding. I think he has chickens, too. Much healthier to be able to swap roosters. Genetic diversity is going to be a serious problem down the road.”

“You know, you guys are the weirdest swingers I’ve ever known. Instead of swapping partners, you swap chickens and goats.” Now Mackenzie did laugh.

She had always liked Kirk. Cameron had tried to date him for a while, but things just weren’t like that between them so they’d mutually called it off. Thankfully it didn’t seem to bother Leigh. It was too bad, though. She hoped to one day have Cam marry someone she actually liked, male or female, though it looked as though Cameron leaned toward men.

Mac opened up the horse trailer and tried to judge how many goats she could safely put into it. Then she glanced back at the little things inside their pens. Maybe they were kids, though. She’d done tons of research on goats, but it was a lot different being next to them, and some were smaller than others. She couldn’t tell most breeds apart yet. She’d been focusing on proper care, and which ones produced the most milk.

While she waited for the farm’s owner to make her way back over to them with the flattened chicken boxes, Mac grabbed her notebook from the glove compartment of the truck, and jotted a few notes for herself about the chicken feeders they were using. She wanted to make things as simple as possible for everyone. Then she went back to the goat pen where Kirk was watching them romp.

“Neil said he moved twelve goats in that trailer, but I have no idea what size they were. Can we fit that many, do you think?” Kirk shrugged.

“Probably. You said you were planning to get that other kind, too, right? The ones with the long hair?”

“The Angora, yeah. These could be the Alpines, but I’ll have to check. I don’t even know if they’re fully grown. They seem so small. Milk goats can give up to six litres of milk per day. The math just doesn’t seem right.” Rose reached them just then.

“Those Alpines will do a little less than that. I’ve got Saanens if you really want good milk production, but it depends on your needs. Are you looking to sell the milk, or is it just for your family?”

“We’ve got four of us on the property, and we were planning to get more than one goat for milk, so four to six litres from each one might be more than we can use. I also want to make lots of cheese. I particularly like the lower lactose part of the deal. I love milk, but lactose doesn’t love me.

“What’s really important to me is genetic diversity. I want to be sure that whatever goats I get, none of them are related to one another in any way, and I want enough to keep the ranch going for a while so I’m not line-breeding.” Rose nodded her head.

“We’ve got many distinct lines here, so that won’t be a problem. As you can see, there are hundreds of goats, and a number of different breeds. You could actually cross-breed some dairy goats, too, rather than get all the same kind.”

“That’s a thought. Maybe a buck and two does for each breed. I know that’s a large ratio of bucks, but that diversity thing is a big deal for me. Can you take a look at the trailer to be sure I can transport them safely, and maybe give me an idea how many I can fit in there? I’ll take a couple of trips if I have to. I don’t want to hurt them.” Rose seemed pleased that she’d be selling to someone who actually cared, so she gave what advice she could.

“That’s a three-horse slant trailer, looks like, so I’d say if you’re making a short trip within the area, you’d be fine with taking anywhere from nine to twelve. You could have maybe four different breeds if you wanted. How far do you need to travel?”

“Not too far. Thirty to forty-five minutes. It usually only takes about half an hour to make this trip, but that’s without being particularly cautious. We’re near Rosseau Falls, so we have to drive up and around Lake Rosseau. I’m sure it will still be stressful for them.” Rose appeared to consider it for a moment.

“It can take a few days before they fully recover from being moved. I can give them a shot of oxytetracycline to combat shipping fever if you’re worried about it, but they’ll be with some of their own herd which will make a big difference there. You’ve already got bedding on the floor of the trailer, so there’s no reason you can’t take the lot of them today. It’s only an issue if they’re still weaning.”

“Alright. I want three of them to be the Angora ones. I’ll just be keeping the wool to mess around with spinning and weaving stuff, so I don’t think I need those long-term. It’s the dairy ones I want to be sure I have a long time. We’ll start with some Alpines and Saanens, and if there’s room I’d like maybe a third breed. What would you recommend for the third, considering the first two dairy breeds?”

“We have Nubians and La Mancha. Both of them have high butterfat content in their milk and are good producers, so it’s really a matter of personal preference there. Why don’t we take a look?”

Mac and Kirk wandered with Rose around the different pens. When it came down to a choice, aesthetics were the only things she could go by. She didn’t really like the small ears of the La Manchas, and the Roman noses of the Nubians appealed to her.

She picked out the goats that looked the healthiest to her from each herd. They all had energy and bright intelligence in their eyes, and she had a fondness for animals that had brains. Of course, she knew that would also mean having to outsmart the goats more often than not, but she liked mental stimulation. They would keep her on her toes, much like the ferrets did.

She managed to finagle some milking equipment as part of the deal since she was buying so many of them. It would save them some time and effort.

There was enough room for all of the goats to lie down, including the Nubians, so off they went.

“Wow. You just spent thousands of dollars like it was nothing!” Mac shrugged, concentrating on the road so she didn’t hit any potholes.

“No choice really. I pulled everything we had out of the bank, and I’m investing it in things that will soon be all that really matter. Bank balances are going to disappear, and what use are the strips of plastic we use for cash now?” Kirk looked uncomfortable.

“It’s just that we’ve hardly contributed anything. I feel like a mooch.”

“Kirk, please don’t think like that. It’s a huge relief to me that I’m able to bring you guys to a place where you’ll be safe.

“You being with us is actually a huge help. There’s so much work to be done, but it will be a lot easier with four of us doing it. With just the two of us, things would have been very hard to pull off. It’s also nice to have someone tall in the place. Being short can suck sometimes.” Kirk gave a quick snort.

“I haven’t been your height since I was about ten years old. I don’t know how you manage.”

“Yuk it up. You’ll get your comeuppance one day. Just you wait. You with all your tallness.” They shared a laugh.

“How’s Leigh doing? Why didn’t you tell her she could just grab whatever food she wanted?”

“I did. She wouldn’t do it if she didn’t have your permission. I told her she was being an idiot, but she got all weird about it.”

“You should have said something to me, then. I would have told her right away. I didn’t think I had to. I mean, what was she supposed to do? Just not eat?”

“She said something about getting groceries here. We had a few things with us in the car, but that was gone before the end of the first day, and so she was really hungry by the time we had dinner last night. It didn’t make sense, because whatever groceries we got weren’t going to last long anyway. We weren’t prepared for this in any way.”

“Not independently maybe, but as a group the four of us can do this. Cameron and I need the extra hands. I’ve never given a damn about money. Nobody becomes anything in this world without the help of others. It takes a village, and all that...”

“Well, nobody is raising kids, but I get what you mean. I’m good with electronics and stuff, so maybe I can be a help there. I’d be better at building stuff than Leigh, but she wouldn’t be a visible deterrent with that guy you’re having problems with. I feel like I’m getting the easy part of all of this.”

“Oh, don’t worry. We have almost everything we need now, so that means we’re going to be working right alongside Cameron and Leigh with all future projects on the property. We need to get the garden sorted out, so they can do that while you and I expand the goat pen. What I designed was meant for maybe six goats. I want to triple it.

“The goats will be allowed to graze later on. We’ll also let the chickens out in groups then, but until we get proper fencing up we need to keep them penned at all times. We’ll have to keep males and females separated except for breeding.

“The blackberry and raspberry bushes that surround the cleared section will be a huge temptation for the goats, and they’ll basically clear-cut them so we end up with no berries left. I need to get a fence up inside that perimeter.

“I’ll have to set up the sawmill. I can completely avoid buying lumber that way. Once we’ve got that fence, I’m not going to need to cut down too many more trees. Mostly just for furniture.”

“You’re seriously going to do all that yourself? That seems like a lot of work! I mean, I’ll help with whatever you need, but that’s massive.”

“I love carpentry. It’s not so massive when you’ve got proper tools, either. I’ve got all the toys I need. Everything that’s in the current building is stuff I built, except for what’s obviously store-bought. I didn’t make the mattresses, but I made the bed frames, futon, workbenches, and walls.