October 18, 2002 - Down on the Farm
John heard the dogs start barking so he stepped out on the front porch. The van from the university was at the gate and Ann was just getting out. He went through the gate then gave his wife a big hug and a kiss. Picking up her bag he said, "Lisa said something about Luke coming this weekend? He change his mind?"
His wife replied, "No, he came with me. He just needed to see the Stricklands so he had the driver drop him off there. He brought out Ellie's new arthritis medicine from town. He should be here in an hour or so I think. He'll probably take a look at the man Ed shot too if he's still at their house."
He nodded his head and they went into the house, shutting out the chill of the evening. In the dining room Lisa was helping the girls bring supper to the table. Robert came in from the barn and after everyone had washed their hands the family sat down. Ann asked, "Shouldn't we wait for Luke?"
Lisa replied, "No, when he called this afternoon he said he wanted to talk to the Stricklands when he dropped off Ellie's new meds. No point in making the family wait an hour waiting on him to show."
Grace was spoken and the family set into their supper. Presently the conversation turned to matters in town and Ann said, "The university is getting ready to start classes again. There's talk they might start in November but the Provost says they'll probably wait until the new year when fuel and food shipments should have settled into something stable. No one's sure how the money end is going to work with the Federal government in disarray and the banks still not reopened. He did say there was going to be a LOT more work-study requirements for students and they'd be doing a lot more practical day-to-day work than before. Sounds like the university is trying to save on labor costs. No one knows yet how big the hit to their funding is going to be but it's going to be very big. The ag colleges are going to be important again, much more so than they've been for many years. The engineering school is gearing up too. Come Monday when the van comes to get me it may not be burning petroleum at all!"
Robert asked, "What's it going be using, coal?"
Ann said, "Close. They've very nearly got three wood burning vehicles ready to go. They're trying to work up a means to run one on methane too."
John asked, "These wood burners powering a steam boiler or are they using the combustion gasses directly?"
"Direct combustion is my understanding. Wood is heated and the gasses it gives off are then burned in a motor. I saw one from a distance yesterday as they were making test runs. Strange looking sight to see a school bus with a furnace on the back belching smoke. I understand they're trying to build a steam driven model as well."
Her husband shrugged, "Well, I suppose for at least a medium term solution it might help with the petroleum shortage we're having now but I can't see how they'll compete when the ports and pipelines reopen. I would like to see them in action though. You said they were working with methane again. Are they producing it themselves?"
She nodded her head, "Yes. Everyone still has to go so there's no shortage of the raw material. The mechanical engineering types are cooperating with several of the ag faculty on that project to build expedient, small methane generators and convert stationary power plants to burn it. Mobile power plants like trucks are more difficult because of trying to store the gas. There was a lot of work in this area done back in the seventies but it all died out in the early eighties. The books and papers are all still in the library collections though so they're digging them out and updating them."
John took a forkful of beans and considered for a moment. "It seems to me that with seven people and the livestock here we've got plenty of the raw material necessary for producing the gas. If they have a good small scale design that could be used on a small farm could you bring us copies?"
"I don't know. I don't work with them but I can try and investigate. If they come up with a viable design they're going to need to farm it out for hands-on and that sort of thing. Maybe we could build one of our own. Maybe we could store it in our LP tank?"
No one knew enough about the mechanics of producing and using methane to say so conversation drifted to other topics and the family reached the end of their meal. They were just starting in on their cake when the dogs became noisy again. Melinda got up to go see what they were barking at and came back to the table and said, "Daddy, it's Dr. Luke at the gate. He's got a COW with him."
This caused raised eyebrows around the table except for Anna and Lisa who adopted poker faces.
Mel's father said, "Well, how about that? Reckon I'd better go out and see if Luke has taken up rustling as a side line." He stood and walked out the front door. The rest of the family followed shortly afterwards.
Outside Luke was just closing the gate behind him, a Jersey cow on a long lead standing nearby. With a grin John asked, "Luke, you find that thing wandering the roads or did you liberate it from somewhere?"
The doctor laughed and said, "I swapped it for some magic beans."
Melinda looked closely at the creature and said, "That looks like Mrs. Ellie's cow."
Her father looked at the cow more closely himself and said, "Be damned! That is Ellie's cow isn't it? Why are you bringing it here?"
With a grin Luke said, "Thereby hangs a tale. Harken O King and I will enlighten thee to the tale of the Doctor and the Cow."
The girls giggled at this and he continued, "As a matter of certain fact, this is NOT Ellie's cow. It is IN FACT - my cow." He then handed the lead rope to John who looked at him questioningly. "Now, O King, she is YOUR cow."
John looked at the lead rope in his hand and asked, "Luke, how did you come by Ellie's cow? She didn't give it to you to pay for her arthritis medicine did she?"
Luke replied, "No, the exchange has nothing to do with her medicine nor my services but it does have much to do with her arthritis. You see, Ellie came to the Archer clinic last week to see about getting a better medicine for her arthritis which has been worsening these last few months. As a part of the encounter she allowed to Lisa as to how she was going to have to give up milking because it aggravated her condition. Lisa told this to me and we worked out a deal. I just concluded it a little while a go and here she is!"
The new owner stroked the neck of the cow and said, "Luke, this is a huge gift! A good milk cow was worth hundreds of dollars BEFORE the Impact. I can't imagine what one would be worth now. This is too much. I can't accept her."
The doctor shook his head, "No, on the contrary. It's not really enough. John, you did my family a real service by bringing them out here in the midst of a disaster. You gave them shelter, food, and safety at a time that I was hard pressed to do so. Hell, the fact of the matter is that I was providing them shelter but the food and safety part were really becoming very dicey. So far as I'm concerned I owe you a herd of cows but just now one is all I can manage. Take her. Ellie was glad that she's going to a good home and sends her blessings."
John looked at his wife, then cut his eyes at Lisa and then back to Ann. "You knew didn't you?!"
She laughed, "Yes John, I did. And I told them you'd be a hard sell too. You never could accept a gift gracefully. Age seems to be mellowing you." The three girls walked up and began to stroke the cow's flanks.
He grinned and said, "OK Luke, we accept her." He doffed his hat and bowed to the doctor. "Thank you most generous lord for your magnanimous contribution to the Horne farm."
Melinda grinned and asked, "Are we really going to keep her daddy? Cool! Our own dairy cow!"
Her father grinned back, "Well, small hands, maybe in a week you might not think she's so cool."
A puzzled look crossed Melinda's face. "Small hands? Why wouldn't I think she's cool?"
His grin grew wider, "Because YOU are the one who is going to milk her! You, Brittany and Heather that is. I'll leave it to the three of you to work out your own schedule providing she's milked TWICE a day, EVERY day, and at the SAME two times a day. Comprende?"
Mel's face grew wide again. "But why us? You and grandpa usually handle the larger stock."
"Because milking the cow is traditionally a job given to children. It's where the term 'milk maids' comes from." John began to sing "On the third day of Christmas the Doctor gave to me - three maids a milking, two wives conspiring, and a milk cow to make a daaiirryy!"
Melinda clapped her hands to her ears, "OK! OK daddy! I'll milk the cow! Just stop singing!" and started giggling.
Heather's face showed concern and Brittany looked uncertain. "Uhh, milk a cow, Uncle John? I don't know…" the older girl hesitated.
Her mother arched an eyebrow. "Well I DO know. I'm sure Mrs. Ellie would be glad to teach you three how to milk. She'd probably be tickled, in fact. I milked when I was a girl in Ohio." She grinned then continued, "It builds character, my father used to tell me. Especially when it was below freezing and blowing snow."
Heather said, "But mom, that was years and years ago."
Her mother replied, "So it was, all the way back in the Sixties as a matter of fact. Grandpa's a doctor too, remember? Never did understand why he wanted to keep all of those animals when we could simply have bought what we needed at the grocery like everyone else. Now I'm beginning to understand what he was getting at. Store bought milk never has tasted quite right to me since I left home. It'll do you good girl!"
Heather's father chuckled, "Your mother wouldn't take me seriously back when I was trying to get her to go steady with me until I agreed to learn how to milk cows myself. My folks thought I'd gone out of my mind but I did it. Your grandfather said that anyone who'd accept getting swatted with a manure soaked tail for the regard of a girl had to be in love!"
Heather and Brittany still looked uncertain but raised no further protests and soon were stroking the cows head.
John rubbed the back of his neck. "Well, we'll for sure have plenty of feed stock material for our own methane generator now. Holy cow! Luke, I just realized a serious problem here. We don't have enough feed or hay to keep a dairy cow through the winter."
Luke held up his hand in a calming motion. "Not to worry, we've got that covered too. Actually, it was your goodwife who enlightened us to that problem when Lisa first brought her into the conspiracy. Not only did I buy the cow I bought the hay and feed that Ed had planned to feed her. You'll just need to work out with him how best to bring it over. He'd planned out her feed requirements when he sold his cattle to the Recovery Command and kept it back. He says if your winter grazing makes OK you should be able to save a fair amount of the hay."
The temperature was steadily dropping so John began to lead the cow to the barn and the group followed. "Luke," he asked, "just out of curiosity, if you don't mind my asking, what did she cost you? With inflation eating up paper dollars by the day she must have cost you a real bag of money."
"Actually," he replied, "I didn't buy her for paper dollars. My investment adviser is, or was, a real nut for diversification. Saved me a small fortune in the dot.com bust actually. One of the things he convinced me to buy is gold. Not stocks or futures, but the real thing. Truthfully, I was never much of a gold bug but he did put me into a small quantity of coins. I bought $20 Double Eagle gold pieces. Ellie drives a hard bargain but we both made out OK. In a manner of speaking you could say I bought the cow, equipment, feed and hay for $80.00. Damn cheap considering what you've done for my wife and daughter."
John tied the cow into a stall, filled her hay rack, and water bucket. He looked at her udder and asked, "Did Ellie say when she usually milks? Her bag is looking full. By the way, what is her name? I don't recall ever hearing her say."
Luke said, "Seven and seven but she said you can adjust the time to suit you if you do it slowly. She's giving three gallons a day just now. She freshened four months ago so she reckons you should get at least another year before she needs to be bred again. When she does need to be serviced you can take her down and let one of Ed's Hereford or Angus bulls do the deed. Come to think of it, I didn't ask Ellie what the cow's name is. Didn't occur to me but I'm sure it's on her papers. Ellie gave them to me."
"Her name's Dandelion." Melinda said, "Mrs. Ellie once told me that all her milk cows are named Dandelion. Daddy, can we make home made ice cream?"
Her father grinned and said, "Sure, as many times as you kids want to crank the churn. And whipped cream, and hot chocolate and just about anything else you can make out of dairy products. Probably end up feeding part of it to the hogs and chickens. Damn good feed as a matter of fact."
"Well, as a part of the deal, I did promise Ellie that you'd keep them in milk but that probably won't be more than a gallon or two a week at the most. I'm sure you'll be able to get by on the nineteen or twenty gallons a week this will leave you."
"Twenty GALLONS a week!" Brittany exclaimed, "How much milk can we drink?"
Ann chuckled then said, "Well, we're about to find out."
Lisa glanced at her watch. "Seven and seven you said? Well, it's a little past seven now. We'd better rustle up a bucket of warm water and a cloth to wash her bag with and another clean bucket to milk into." She reached out and took Luke by the hand and said, "You look like you could use the practice. Think you can still remember how?"
Luke looked mildly alarmed at the prospect, "But Lisa, I haven't milked since you moved out of your parent's place. I'm a surgeon now!"
She grinned at him and said, "Good! It's that delicate touch that works so well."