El Rancho del Corazón
70 Horses!
THE FIRST THING I noticed when I walked out to the car to go to my first class on Monday morning was that Hannah and Samantha were going with me. I was taking Intermediate Inorganic Chemistry 330. It included a lecture, a discussion, and a second lecture on Monday and Wednesday. Tuesday and Thursday, the entire three hours was taken up by the lab. That meant four days a week, 9:30-12:30. Then for good measure, they threw in one final 9:30 lecture on Friday before we were free for the weekend. What Sam and Hannah planned to do during that time, I had no idea.
“We’re going to class,” Hannah answered my question. “We have to attend the classroom portion of the summer media camp three hours each day. Then shooting the whole thing is the lab portion during the six weeks after my birthday.”
“That’s what the whole summer hinges on, doesn’t it?” I laughed. “Hannah turns 19 on July 5. We have the work that has to be done before her birthday and the work that we have to do after it.”
“Am I a bitch?”
“No, you are not a bitch, sweetheart. I just think it’s a great way to divide the summer. Before-19 and After-19. It’s so symmetrical.”
“That’s what you’ll think when Heaven gets here. Everything is perfectly symmetrical,” Sam laughed.
“Oh my God! I haven’t contacted her. I need to call her this afternoon if we’re going to have her on the show,” I said. How stupid could I be? I suggested that we invite her and then never invited her.
“Calm down, Brian,” Hannah said soothingly. It was that ‘there-there harried star’ tone of voice she used. “I had Sarah call her. She agreed, but she can’t get here the first week of shooting because of some patriotic fashion show she’s doing in Washington, DC. She’ll come in the weekend of the 13th. That’s eight days after nineteen,” she laughed.
“I thought I’d let you down.”
“I’m the producer. It’s my job to make it happen. You just prepare your thing so you can do a show every morning.”
“That reminds me. I was talking to Angela and we were thinking we could do a series on fresh produce, including a tour of the garden. Will we be able to take cameras outside?” I asked.
“That’s a great idea!” I caught Samantha scrambling to write down notes as Hannah spoke. “We could do one that’s based on the garden layout, too. Angela is brilliant on how she planned the garden. And this weekend they plowed phase two.”
“Phase two? What’s that?”
“Angela found out there’s a farmers’ market and we can sell some of our produce there on Tuesday mornings. It’s held in the parking lot of one of the churches. We will have early produce ready for the first market in June,” Samantha said.
“How big?”
“Another acre.”
“I never thought we’d have the problem of too much food! Remind me to tell Angela how proud of her I am.”
“Huh?”
“Never mind. It’s not your responsibility. It’s mine.”
The decking and support posts were in for our front porch already and when we got home Wednesday afternoon, the roof framing had been done with the floor joists for the upper deck. So cool! I could imagine every girl in the casa out on that deck sunning herself. Nude. What a life!
Mom and Dad had taken a couple days off to come down with Anna to talk about the proposed new bunkhouse and what we were working on for the expansion of the second floor. As a result, we had to have a clan board meeting Wednesday night.
“We don’t want the ranch to look like a trailer park or a low rent development,” Anna said. “We’ve been working with Rhiannon the past couple days and would like you to consider this.” Rhiannon, representing Casa del Agua, laid out the plans on the table, along with a rendering. Lamar, Louise, Robyn, Rose, and I looked it over. It was funny to me that all the casa representatives were women except Lamar. I represented the clan as a whole.
“It looks like another barn!” Rose exclaimed.
“Exactly,” Rhiannon explained. “It looks just like what you would expect to find on a ranch instead of what you’d find in a housing development. Only, you can see it has a few special features.”
“The silo is built right into the barn,” I said.
“And it’s smaller than a silo you’d build for grain storage. In reality, it’s just the circular stairway that connects the outside to the upper floor. Since the overall dimensions of the barn are smaller—just thirty by forty—the structure looks taller and leaner than this barn. And, though looks are deceiving, it is actually three stories, like a lot of barns. If we build it where the ground falls away on the west, it will be like a lower level that’s almost underground. It has slightly lower ceilings throughout at just ten feet. The total height doesn’t look out of proportion to the structure.”
“How are they divided up?” Louise asked. “I mean the units. We are still talking about a duplex, aren’t we?”
“Yes. The bottom unit is the walkout on the hill slope, but the foundation is elevated enough to have good, regulation windows all the way around. It’s actually slightly larger than the bunkhouse units with four bedrooms and two and a half baths.”
“I love how you’ve built the ramp up to the second level on the side,” Mom said. “Just like a lot of barns with the lower walkout.”
“This is where we were able to accommodate some of Casa del Sol’s specific requests,” Rhiannon said. “This casa comprises one couple, two individual men, and two individual women. And the couple is thinking seriously about adding a child to the clan’s brood.”
“Really?” I exclaimed. “Lionel and Sugar?”
“Can’t talk sense into those two,” Lamar laughed.
“So,” Rhiannon continued. “The main floor is almost a repeat of the first floor except where the silo comes up. The silo is the main access for the upper levels and doesn’t have a door into the first level. In fact, inside, you can’t tell there is a silo there at all on the bottom level. The main floor has four bedrooms and two and a half baths. Then the stairway goes on up to the loft. The living-dining area of the main floor is open all the way to the barn rafters. The rest of the upper area is an open plan living area, similar to what we have upstairs here in Casa del Fuego. A bath and closet and one big room. It does have soundproofing so that the resident of the upper level has privacy. That, by the way, would be Lamar.”
“It’s beautiful,” I said. “Lamar, can you guys afford to build a place like this? I mean, I’m sorry to be so blunt.”
“It’s your right, Patrón. My little brother and I got substantial living allowances in our scholarships that we didn’t use all of. I only used about a third of my living allowance over the past four years and unlike some of the players, I didn’t spend a lot. Lionel and Sugar moved into our apartment and he hasn’t spent any of his housing allowance yet. So, last year’s plus the next three. Finally, Renee’s father set up a substantial trust for her that she gained full access to when she graduated from college. She’s not putting everything in, but she’s matching Lionel and me. Miss Rhiannon has been working her magic with the manufacturing company that built the bunkhouse and we believe we have the resources to pull off the building.”
“That’s where I come in again,” Anna said. “The bottom level is not part of the manufactured house. It is the foundation. I’ve discussed that with Ron and I believe it is in the best interest of my portfolio to build the foundation on which Lamar and company can put their house. All I need are renters for the bottom.”
“We’ll rent it for the summer,” Robyn said immediately. “I’d like to rent it year-round, but Kevin has a good program at WSU and we are definitely going back to Pullman, though I’m not that fond of the winter out there.”
“Warren and Adam have talked to me about renting out the bottom, too,” Lamar said.
“Perfect!” Robyn jumped in again. “We can invite Leonard, Ross, and Monte to live there, too. Then I could be Snow White and the Seven Fairies.”
We all looked at Robyn with our mouths wide open. When she started laughing we all joined her. Where did this girl come from?
Monday morning, during forms, the phone rang and Samantha ran to answer it.
“Brian, it’s for you.” Shit! I hate phone calls. Something is always wrong when the phone rings. I hoped no one died this time. But why would I get a call at 6:30 Monday morning?
“Hello?”
“Brian, this is Theresa at Starbridge Dude Ranch.”
“Theresa! How are you? Are you still running barrels?”
“Only for show. Can’t ride barrels when you’re pregnant.”
“Pregnant? Congratulations!”
“Thank you. Larry and I finally tied the knot. Look, that’s not why I called. Old Mr. Reinhardt passed away this winter. He owned the ranch. I guess he’s been taking a bit of a loss on it for years. Anyway, his heirs are putting it up for sale and have directed Larry and me to sell the stock. We’re the last ones here, by the way. Mr. Reinhardt let us live here during the winter to keep the stock cared for and the pipes from freezing. It gave us plenty of time to get me in this condition.”
“Where are you going to live?”
“Oh, Larry’s got an offer with an accounting company in Indianapolis. I guess we’ll move to town. Won’t seem right.”
“I don’t think I could ever move to the city now that we’ve moved out to a ranch. You should see it, Theresa. Not as big as Starbridge, but there will be 46 of us living here this summer.”
“That’s what your dad told me when I called him. Which brings me to the reason for the call. We have to shuffle the unsold stock off to auction this week. Before they go, we can sell them at a reasonable price. Larry and I have fixed that price at between $250 and $600 per head, depending on the age and condition of the horse or mule. We wanted to give you first crack at them since you took Jingo when he was lame and tended him until he was healed. Would you like to buy a horse or ten?” she asked.
A horse or what? I couldn’t just make this decision.
“How long do I have, Theresa?”
“The auction’s Wednesday. Livestock truck will be here on Tuesday at three o’clock. If you want them, better come now.”
“Crap, crap, crap, crap, crap. I need to talk to my casa. Can I call you right back?”
“I’m waiting by the phone.”
“Emergency casa meeting,” I yelled when I came out of the office. “All clan members are welcome to attend.” Whitney stopped forms immediately and everyone headed to the fireplace which seemed to be where we could all find floor, cushions, or chairs to sit. “We have the opportunity to get more horses,” I said. “The problem is we have to act now. If we decide to get them, we have to get them today. The question is do we want them and how many?”
“How did we get this opportunity?” Rose asked.
“Starbridge Dude Ranch, where Jingo came from, is out of business and they have to sell all their stock. I don’t know which horses are still available, but they’re going to auction tomorrow afternoon,” I said.
“Jennifer is in charge of horses this summer,” Hannah said. “Neither Samantha nor I have time to deal with them as well as the production camp.”
“I vote yes,” Carl said. That surprised me and I looked over at him. “Well… I probably don’t have a vote, but Brenda and Louise and I have been going out on full moon nights and riding around the pasture. We’re never sure about Rika and Silk, but we like to double up on Jingo. It’s pretty cool. And now there’s… um… four of us.”
“At least two and not more than five,” Jennifer said. “All in favor say aye.” No one was opposed.
“It’s three hours up there and we don’t want to miss the opportunity. We should plan to leave by nine. Doug, can we borrow your truck and a driver? We’ll need the tack with the horses. I’m not sure I’ll have room in my car and the trailer.”
“No problem. Carl, you want a horse. You take the truck and follow him.”
“I want to go,” Courtney said.
“Me too,” Louise said.
“I think we’d better cut it off there or we’ll all be going and the whole day will be shot. Crap! I guess I’m cutting class today.”
When we pulled in to the dude ranch, it was a little sad. Jennifer was squeezing my arm in the middle seat and I could tell Courtney was holding on to Jennifer just as hard.
“This is where I met my true love,” Jennifer sniffed. “He rescued me three times.”
“You know what I want to do?” Courtney said. “I want us to go sit in the chow hall and I’ll take off my shirt. Then we’ll see if Brian just wants to drink milk.” Jennifer snorted.
Theresa and Larry came out of the main house together. She was definitely pregnant. A lot further along than Doreen. The five of us went up to them and I introduced Carl and Louise.
“Congratulations, you two,” I said again. “How far along are you, Theresa?”
“Fifteen months,” she sighed.
“Six,” Larry mouthed over her head. “We’re due on Labor Day. Isn’t she beautiful?” he said aloud.
“How appropriate,” Louise laughed.
“You know, one of my mates has one in the hopper, too,” I said. This time Theresa and Larry were surprised and they looked carefully at Jennifer and Courtney.
“Not us! Not this time,” Jennifer said. “Horses.” She was getting us off family matters and on to business. Larry led us all out to the corral where there was a couple of dozen horses.
“We didn’t figure you could take them all, but you’re welcome to,” Larry said. “Your dad said you had a total of 40 acres but only about 20 is pasture. Standard rules say you start with an acre and add an acre per horse you turn out. At maximum, you could support nineteen horses. Of course, your mileage may vary.”
“Well, we have harder limits than that,” I said. “We’re authorized to buy two to five horses, but practically, we can only haul four. And we need tack for all of them.”
“Mr. Reinhardt was always a stickler about having tack that was only used on one horse. He started that when he opened the dude ranch back in ’55. He was active out here until a few years ago. You might have even met him when you started coming out. Anyway, we fixed the price per horse to include that horse’s tack.”
“Look! It’s Jubal! Jubal. Here, boy. Come home with us,” Jennifer said, ducking through the rail fence. Courtney was right behind her.
“Penny! Penny!” she called. In a couple of minutes, the girls led the two horses to the fence and Larry fastened halter ropes on them.
“I’ve got an idea on how to choose the others,” I said. “We have Jennifer get on each one and see which ones she falls off.” Personally, I felt the slug I got on both arms from the girls was a little harder than was strictly called for.
“How about that big horse?” Carl asked. “Lionel and Lamar have even mentioned wanting to learn to ride. And, like I said, we like to ride double.”
“Is that Timber?” I asked.
“Yes,” Larry said. He did a complex little whistle and Timber raised his head to look at us. “Timber, hiya!” Larry called. The big horse ambled toward us. I went into the corral and wandered among the horses trying to think which one would best round out our stock. Jubal and Timber were both pretty big horses. I was thinking it would be good to have another small horse. Two looked likely. I’d worked with each of them before.
“Queenie, rail,” I said, pointing to where the other horses were now tied. The little bay nodded and wandered over to the rail where Larry attached a lead rope and tied her. She was wonderfully voice-trained. I remembered the story of her backing toward the barn when a Girl Scout was yelling ‘Becc’ at her leader. That was four. As I walked toward the rail myself, I got nudged in the back by a little palomino and turned to face her. She was following along right beside me. “Lady. I’m sorry, sweetheart. I can’t take five.” She walked up to the rail and stood beside Queenie.
“Should have known,” Larry said under his breath.
“Brian, have you considered boarding any horses?” Theresa asked.
“Not really. We all just volunteer to go out and work with them. It’s not like we’re professional wranglers,” I laughed.
“We were wondering if you’d consider taking Snooker, Diablo, and Jeremiah for us. We’d pay you the going rate for boarding at least for the summer. Our horses have to be out of here, too,” Theresa said. Snooker was her prized barrel racing horse. Diablo was Larry’s trail horse.
“Who’s Jeremiah?”
“My mule,” Larry sighed. “I can’t part with him. He’s been with me for nearly twenty years.”
“Do you have a trailer you could bring them down in?” I asked.
“Of course.”
“Will it fit four?” Larry nodded.
“Then bring Lady, too. We’d like these five horses.”
It took an hour to sort out the tack and load it, sign the paperwork, and load eight horses into two trailers. Then it was a three-hour trip back to the ranch. We unloaded the trailers and let the horses into the pasture with our other three. Jubal and Jingo immediately faced off and bared their teeth. We watched the geldings carefully to see if we were going to have to separate them. Larry had Diablo saddled and was ready to go in about thirty seconds.
Then the two horses took off. Jingo was on the inside and Jubal ran along the fence. I thought for a minute Jingo was going to run them right into the back fence, but he made a hard right turn and was suddenly leading Jubal by a length. But Jubal was on the inside when Jingo turned and headed for the shelter. The two horses ran side by side all the way to the water tank, slid to a stop, and dipped their heads to drink. From then on, they ignored each other.
The other horses paid no attention to the two old rivals and just wandered around to get acquainted with their surroundings. Jeremiah stopped and nodded to Silk and Rika, both of whom barely registered there were other horses around. Larry unsaddled Diablo and let him into the pasture as well.
“I see you’ve got a good stock of hay,” Larry said. “You need to cut the pasture, though. The grass shouldn’t be more than about six inches long for optimum grazing.”
“We overbought for the winter, but with eleven horses instead of three, we’ll plan to put out some hay each day to supplement the pasture. I’ll call Mr. Jacobs next door and see if he can cut it this week. If they get too rambunctious out there, they’ll tear up the food supply,” I said. “Why don’t you two come in and have some dinner before you head back. Meet our family.”
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