A full week had passed. Without it being noticed. The pace of life was so slow, and with nothing, or at least nothing much, to do, the days smoothly melted into one another.
Things were going better, however. Sasha had much less pain in her chest and side - or perhaps she was just getting used to the pain. But she walked around a lot more, she even sometimes helped Buddleia in the vegetable garden, and she felt herself slowly getting back to her old self. Even better than her old self. As a matter of fact; her old self had died when her car went off the mountain, and a new self had woken up at the run-down farm and was now recuperating and growing stronger. And more resolute.
One or two of the days the purple and white foxtaur woman Buddleia had been working in the vegetable garden behind the small farmhouse, Sasha had spent more time searching through the wreck of her Volvo station wagon, and cleaning up all the mess that was in there. She had found her wallet, and was pleasantly surprised to find there was still 53 dollars in cash money in it. That's right, the fuel stop just outside of Bronto Valley had been much cheaper than she had expected. She had also found the packet of Chesterfields she had bought at that fuel station and her lighter, which she was happier about than she knew she should be.
There had been several papers she had found that reminded the tall lanky human woman of things. Some she didn't want to remember, some things that she half-thought might be handy information to have in the back of her head. There had been some spare parts; mainly fuses and light bulbs, those must've come from the glove compartment. There had been a few things Sasha hadn't even known had been in her car, like a couple of rolls of peppermints and hard fruit candies, and even another, opened pack of Tagrisja cigarettes that was still half full; those had probably been under the seats. There had been some more tools, such as the scissor jack and the lug nut cross wrench. There had been a few CDs; Doobie Brothers Live at Wolf Trap, three Billy Joel albums - Piano Man, 52nd Street and Storm Front respectively - and the latest Virgin Snow album. Probably not much use anymore, the only CD player around the place was the one in the Volvo.
One thing Sasha had noticed with surprise; the digital clock in the dash was still working. That had given her another thought, and she had forced the crumpled hood open with the cross wrench and disconnected the battery to save whatever power was left in it. The human woman had seen all the old farm vehicles and implements in the sagging open shed some way next to the small farmhouse, and she had a faint idea that some of that stuff might still work, but a battery with juice in it would be required for most of that.
At the eighth day, as Buddleia and Sasha were calmly lounging in the tall grass in the back garden a bit, Sasha eventually rolled her head from where she was resting it against the side of the vixen-taur's quadruped lower body.
"Hey Leia?"
"Mm, yes?"
"Your grandparents ran this farm, you told me. What did they grow here?"
"Cereals and grains. Sometimes wheat, mainly barley, sorghum and oats, canola in between, and sunflowers in smaller field."
"So that's why there's a Deutz Starliner harvester with a grain head and that tiny super old International Ninety-one harvester with the narrow corn head in that shed?"
"Yes. Grandfather got the small old one cheaper than second corn head for the big one, so that was easier and enough for the small sunflower field."
"That makes sense I guess. What did you grow here?"
"Canola and oats mostly."
Sasha sat up a bit and half turned to look at Buddleia, taking the vixen-taur's paw in both her own hands.
"What went wrong? Why did you let the farm fall into this amount of disrepair?"
Buddleia gave a light shrug of her upper shoulders and let out a light sigh that made her bristly whiskers flutter.
"Too much work. I not mind hard work, but started losing drive and motivation when equipment kept breaking and I couldn't get it easily fixed anymore. Was easier to just maintain a vegetable garden for my own food."
"I know all about losing motivation, believe me," Sasha nodded quietly. She gave the vulpine taur's paw a light squeeze. "Would you like the farm to run well again?"
Buddleia looked at Sasha for a moment, then turned her head and looked off into the copse of trees behind the back garden.
"Like, yes, I like," she said softly. "Farm was pride of grandparents. But too far gone, too much work now, Sasha."
Sasha sat up more and put a hand on Buddleia's cheek, gently turning the vixen-taur's head back so she could look her in the eyes.
"I'll help you. It's a lot of work, yes. This farm has to basically start back from scratch. But it's not too much work, Leia. It will be very slow and take very long, but I believe it can work, and I want to help."
Buddleia remained silent for several long moments.
"Why?" she eventually said. "Because I help you? This so much more work than what I do to make you better again, Sasha. You help with making nice food like few days back, that is suitable return for what I do. Not..." She made a wide gesture around with her left paw. "...all this."
The tall, lanky human woman sat up fully upright and scooted around a bit so she was sitting right in front of Buddleia. She held the vixen-taur's right paw in her left hand and kept her right hand on Buddleia's cheek. Her lips were formed into a light smile, her grey eyes were looking straight into Buddleia's deep golden eyes, her expression was serious.
"Remember our talk when I first woke up, Leia? You asked me why I wouldn't have cared if I had died. I told you; I'm a failure. And I am, Leia. I know now that I learned good things on the farm of my grandparents the first eighteen or so years of my life, but from that eighteenth year on, when I went away to live in the big city, everything I've done have been failures." She lay a finger over the vixen-taur's lips when Buddleia wanted to speak up. "I'm not done yet. Listen to me, Leia. In the past seventeen years I've held twelve jobs, and I hated every one of them so I never held them for very long. All I could get to live in was a studio apartment the size of the living room of this farmhouse here, and I couldn't even pay the rent on that in the end. The Volvo was my only decent accomplishment, and I had to do a bunch of sketchy repairs on it over the years because I couldn't afford a garage doing it. But the sketchy repairs worked, because it was stuff I had learned on the farm. And over the past days, with the talks we've had, and me making that stew and all, I realized that the only things I know how to do well are things I learned back on the farm." She put both hands on both of Buddleia's cheeks and leaned in, touching her small button nose against the cool, damp black pad of Buddleia's nose, looking deeper into the vulpine taur's golden eyes. "Leia, I'm sick of being a failure. Let me help. Here is something I know, I feel, I can do at least decently if not well. Leia..." She drew in a deep breath and let it out in a slow sigh, never breaking the contact between their noses or the gaze between their eyes. "You've already done so much more than just helping me after a car accident. You haven't just saved my life, I feel like you have given me a new life. Let me help you turn your life back around too, please. Let me do something I think and pretty much know I can succeed in and not be a failure anymore."
For several more long, silent moments Buddleia stared back into Sasha's eyes. Her ears flagged, dipped, pricked back up, her whiskers twitched as did the end of her bushy tail, her eyes slowly grew wider while her breathing slowed down but deepened. It took yet several more moments before the purple and white vixen-taur managed to open her mouth and speak up in a low voice that trembled slightly.
"You think it could work..? But..." She shook her head slightly. "I want you be not a failure, Sasha. I want me and my grandparents farm not be a failure. But... I don't know if it can work. And... what if it do? What if you can make this farm work, and it works, then where you go after you proved not a failure anymore?"
Sasha was silent for several moments as well, drawing slow and deep breaths. She still did not take her hands off Buddleia's cheeks.
"Leia... when I thought of this, I realized it was going to take years. I was hoping I could convince you during that time to let me stay here, but I was also fully prepared, and I still am, to beg you to let me stay here. I have nowhere to go back to, Leia, not now, not in a couple of months, not in a few years, not ever. And I don't want to go anywhere else. I feel my place is here, I feel like I belong now. Please let me stay here."
A light whimper escaped the vixen-taur's throat.
"Please not go, Sasha... please not go. You think you can make farm work, is good, but you go when it works, it stop working again. And... so lonely here, I really like you here, talk to you, help you, be not lonely anymore. Please not go, not soon, not ever."
Sasha drew in more deep, slow breaths that trembled lightly. She slowly took her hands off Buddleia's cheeks so she could take off her glasses and push her fingers into her eyes for a moment. Then she looked up again and drew in a very deep breath, ignoring the stings it sent through her right side while she put her glasses back on.
"Ten more seconds and we're sitting here crying," she said softly, managing to lift the corners of her lips into a light smile. She drew in another deep breath and put one hand back on Buddleia's cheek, softly running her fingers along the vixen-taur's muzzle. "We'd better not let it get to that." Yet another deep breath. "We have a decision here. We're going to do this and make it work. It's going to take stupidly long and be very, very hard, but we're going to make it work. You and me, Leia. One step at a time. Step one; I'm going to need a lot of info so I'm going to ask you a lot of questions."
"Yes... Yes, good," Buddleia nodded after pulling in several deep breaths as well. "What you need to know?"
"First and foremost; do you have a bank account?"
"Yes, I have. I have bank card to pay with in shops."
"Good. Is there an Ag Co-op anywhere around here?"
"Yes. You know village I mentioned? Few miles south-east of there is Ag Co-op. There's BGA and livestock shop there too."
"Great. Do you have a map of this place? I need to know where everything is. You've lived here all your life I'm assuming, so teach me about the surroundings here."
"I have map inside somewhere. I go get."
Buddleia rose to her four feral feet and slowly walked around the right side of the small farmhouse, with her tail hanging low but the end of it lightly swaying. Sasha sat upright in lotus position in the grass and turned to look after the purple and white vixen-taur, with a light smile on her lips. She took off her glasses again to rub her eyes with her fingers for a moment and again drew in several slow and deep breaths, putting her glasses back on when Buddleia returned with a rolled-up paper.
Sitting in the grass, Buddleia unrolled the paper and lay it on the tree stump near the border of the back garden. It showed only some thin lines, no more than a small handful of squares and rectangles and a few round dots. Sasha sat down near the stump as well and looked at the map as Buddleia ran a finger along some of the lines and pointed at the symbols.
"This my farm here. This was Cherry Blossom Farm, abandoned now for like five years. Here is sawmill. That is small community village I talked about. Here is Ag Co-op, that small box is livestock shop, those boxes is BGA plant. That box there is flour mill, box next to it is oil mill. That is Waving Grain Farm, still works. This small circle is Fruity Fields Orchard, also still works."
Sasha nodded slowly while she studied the map, running her fingers along the lines as well.
"This all looks very spread out. You said the village is a four hour drive away from here. Looks like the Ag Co-op is too in that case. That sawmill, is it still operational?"
"Yes," Buddleia nodded. "They buy trees and wood chips. You can sell trees for money, or they make planks and beams for you. Small crew, but they always there."
"Very good," Sasha said with another slow nod. "It looks like it's closer to your farm than the village. How far away is it?"
"Not know distance, but is hour and half, two hours drive," Buddleia said. "North-west." She traced one of the lines on the map with a fingertip again. "This is dirt road, runs in front of my farm. This is dirt road that runs along the side of my farm. Follow like this, past here, past there, to there, goes right to sawmill."
Sasha again nodded slowly while studying the map.
"That's not too bad. Those other mills, flour and oil you said? Are those still operational too?"
"Yes," Buddleia nodded. "Grandparents sold wheat, barley and sorghum to flour mill, sunflowers and sometimes canola to oil mill. I sold canola to oil mill, oats to livestock shop."
"Good, good," Sasha nodded with a smile. "Mmm... looks like there is still plenty around here to support smaller grain farms and a bit of forestry, even if it's very spread out. I suppose you can sell things in the village too? You mentioned the bones the other day, I'm guessing there's places there you can also sell fruits and eggs and maybe even meats or fish to?"
Buddleia also nodded again.
"Is farmer's market and small stores, bakery, small spinnery that buys wool. I know, Waving Grain Farm has sheep too. Is also post office, but I never use."
"Excellent," Sasha smiled. "Everything needed to keep smaller farms in business, this place is not as desolate as it seemed. Now, you may not know this, but is there internet around here?"
"Little bit, actually," Buddleia said with a small smile. "BGA had tower but shut it down few years ago, but there still faint signals from towers on mountain."
"The Fossil City and Bronto Valley wi-fi towers! Of course!" Sasha nodded. "I forgot about those! Fuck, with any luck, their signals might overlap just enough for my laptop to pick up on them so I can use it." She drew in yet another deep breath and held it for a few moments while she rolled the map back up, then released the breath and smiled at Buddleia. "That's for later though. First; step two. I need to know how big your farm is. Of all that ground around here, what exactly is part of your farm?"
"We walk, I show," Buddleia said with a light and somewhat hopeful smile.
She rose to her four feral feet and held out a paw to help Sasha to her feet as well. Holding the lanky human woman's right hand with her left paw, Buddleia slowly walked around the left side of the small farmhouse and down the dirt path that ran between the grassy fields stretching out from the left side of the house. She pointed down the dirt path with her right paw to a wider dirt road several dozen yards in the distance.
"See there. Is dirt road that goes to sawmill I talked about." She pointed to the left and the right. "There, and there, is dirt paths. That one on right there is the dirt road that leads to where Cherry Blossom Farm was, runs in front of my farm. That one on left leads past Waving Grain Farm eventually, and is back border of my farm. All ground between that road and that one is my farm." She turned and led Sasha back to the farmhouse and down the path that led past the rickety open shed full of dilapidated farm equipment and the windmill. As it curved around the copse of trees behind the farmhouse, it went up and around the low hill with the larger copse of trees on it and ran towards the narrow dirt road that ran behind the farm. Buddleia pointed again. "See dirt path in distance there? Between this path and that, is also mine, that small field and the small forest. Grandparents used that field for sunflowers. Pond is mine too, and narrow strip of ground next to it, but not the field next to it."
"That's not too bad acreage," Sasha smiled as she looked around. "Who owns that field you mentioned, and that ground on the other side of the dirt road there?"
Buddleia gave a light shrug of her upper shoulders.
"Not know. I know you can go to Ag Co-op to buy ground, they give you deeds, but I not think they own all the ground, I think they just arrange sales."
"That would make sense," Sasha nodded. "This is still decent though. Smaller than my grandfolks' farm, but not bad. Okay, on to step three. Show me all the equipment that's still here and tell me what it is and what state it is in. I know that's a silo," she pointed at the once-white but now very rusty silo. "I take it that it's empty? And what is that small building?"
"Silo empty, yes," Buddleia nodded. "Last time I had canola, I brought straight to the oil mill. Building is workshop, has tools and so in it."
"Show me," Sasha smiled, giving the purple and white vixen-taur's paw a light squeeze.
Buddleia gave a soft smile back and led the way back down the narrow dirt path, past the large rusty silo to the open area and over to the wooden building. It had cracked windows on the side that faced the small farmhouse, and a wide, large sagging door on the short side that faced the silo. The purple and white vixen-taur slightly lifted the door so she could pull it open with loud creaking sounds. Sasha looked into the building and slowly walked into it, looking around at the dusty and rusty things that were in the building.
Against the wall opposite the window was a wood workbench, covered in dust, cans and loose parts of vehicles and machines. A tool rack was against the wall above it, still holding a collection of tools, covered in dust and cobwebs. Next to the workbench were a couple of wood cabinets with sagging doors, holding wood fruit crates with dusty bottles and cans of oil, brake and hydraulic fluid, coolant and grease inside and two old chainsaws on top, and a small air compressor and a floor jack next to them. A stack of rusty rims with old tires on them was stacked against the side wall, next to a tall cabinet with only one door left.
Inside that cabinet were a few sagging shelves holding cans of paint, spraycans of penetrating oil and brake cleaner, jars of graphite powder, a box with paint brushes and sheets of sandpaper, another box with round sheets of sandpaper and an old orbital sander, several bottles of paint thinner, mineral spirits and cleaning alcohol, the top two shelves held rows of small boxes filled with nails and screws and bolts, another fruit crate in the bottom of the cabinet held boxes filled with old sparkplugs, belts in all kinds of sizes and other ignition parts. A large coil of green garden hose was sitting next to that crate, and a few spools of rubber hoses for fuel and brake fluid and different colors of thin electrical wire. On the other side of the tall cabinet a collection of gardening tools was leaning against the wall, like rakes, different sized hoes, spades, a broom, and some saws and shears were hanging from nails in the wall.
Slowly stepping around the dusty workshop, Sasha every now and then leaned over to look into corners and under things. There was a row of old metal jerrycans, most of which were still full, Sasha noticed as she lifted them, under the workbench. She also spotted a couple of coils of metal fencing wire and barbed wire and some spools of both metal baling wire and regular baling twine. Above the workbench was a light fixture with fluorescent tubes in it, so the building must have had electricity as well when that was still operational. Walking back out of the building, the human woman spotted a pipe ending in a spigot rising up from the ground and attached to the wall of the building next to the door. She tried the spigot, and after some sputtering water indeed came from it, so that was in fact still operational.
Buddleia started to close the door again when Sasha had walked out of the building, but the human held up a hand with a smile.
"Leave it open, please. I have a feeling I'll be going in and out of this building a lot in the coming time. But do show me the rest of what is around here."
Buddleia nodded with a light smile and walked past the workshop, pointing at a low building that was no more than three wooden walls and a wood roof on poles and a large, rusty round tank on metal legs that had been hidden from view behind the workshop building.
"Shelter for seed and fertilizer bags," she said, pointing at the low building, where a couple of pallets with some old bags on it were still sitting under the low roof. "That tank for diesel. Five... yes, five hundred gallons I believe."
Sasha tapped a knuckle against the rusty tank.
"Sounds like there's still a decent amount in it," she smiled. "When was it last used?"
"Yes," Buddleia nodded, leaning over to check a dirty gauge with a cracked glass cover on the side of the tank. "Three hundred gallons and a bit still in there. I used last... four, maybe five years ago when bringing canola to oil mill, to fill the grain truck."
"Hmmm. Tricky," Sasha nodded slowly. "Diesel doesn't keep that long, and this is an old tank. It'll be a big cost saver if we can use this diesel, but it might be unusable." She shrugged lightly. "A risk we're gonna have to take. It's too precious to dispose of because we'll need to save every penny where we can." She turned back to where the farmhouse was. "Show me what equipment you have, Leia."
"Yes. Most in that shed," Buddleia nodded again, leading the way back to the large, rickety open shed to the right of the small farm house.
They stepped into the shed and slowly between all the rusty equipment in there. Sasha took note of all the implements and vehicles, asking a question every now and then although she did recognize most of the equipment.
Along the left wall were a small solid fertilizer spreader that looked like a very large oval cone attached to a box with a small open-spoked wheel in it, a contraption with many thin metal tines that Buddleia explained was a weeder, an old sickle bar mower meant to attach to a tractor's PTO and an old deck mower sitting upright against the wall. In the middle of the dirt floor that once had had gravel on it sat a few small tractors; two very old, once-blue Hanomag ones of which one was open and the other had a half cab, and next to those was sitting an only slightly younger, once-orange Fiat tractor with an enclosed cab. Behind those sat a rusty disc harrow with bent and chipped discs and an evenly rusty cultivator with bent tines, and a just as rusty six-row seeder. Against the right wall sat a small two-arm tedder, a single-wheel windrower and an old, small baler that made rectangular 500-liter bales.
In the very back of the shed sat the two combine harvesters Sasha had mentioned before; a fairly large, once-green Deutz-Fahr Starliner with a grain head attached to it and a very old and very rusty once-red International 91 with a narrow corn header attached to it. Half hidden next to and behind the harvesters, with its stumpy nose pointing at the back wall of the shed, sat a 1959 Skoda 706 RT truck with a high wooden dump box which had once been green, but the paint had almost entirely flaked off the wood and was very faded and discolored with surface rust on the cab. The windshield also had a long crack running from the bottom right corner almost all the way to the left edge and the right windshield wiper was missing.
As Sasha shuffled her way over to the very back of the shed to look at the front of the old truck, she also noticed a rusty five-furrow plow was hidden behind the International corn harvester, sitting on a flat, long bale trailer with four flat tires. Giving a light nod of her head, the lanky human woman turned around and shuffled back to the front of the shed where Buddleia was sitting on her haunches.
"Your grandparents had a decent bit of equipment, Leia," she smiled. "When was any of this last used? That truck at most five years ago, since you said you last brought canola to the oil mill that long ago, so I'm thinking the Deutz harvester was also last used at that time, but how about the rest?"
Buddleia nodded.
"Harvester and truck was last five years ago." She pointed at the Fiat tractor and the open Hanomag tractor in turns. "This tractor six years ago for cultivating and seeding, that one bit over five years ago for fertilizing and weeding. So..." She ticked off on her fingers. "Harrow, cultivator and seeder six years ago also, spreader and weeder five years ago also. Oh, and..." She pointed at the other Hanomag tractor. "I remember, that one five years ago too, and that baler five years ago, to bale the straw, I sold that too. The other things..." She gave a light shrug of her upper shoulders. "I not remember. Long time ago."
Sasha nodded slowly again as well, with her right hand on her chin and her fingers over her lips.
"Five years is not too bad. It's a shame this shed is so open, though, that won't have done the stuff in here a lot of good." She looked up and smiled. "But I'm pretty sure, with a decent amount of elbow grease and some shade-tree mechanicking ingenuity, we can get most of this equipment going again without too much trouble." She put a hand on Buddleia's arm. "But we will need some cash for a few replacement parts and such, and mainly tires. I only have fifty-three bucks in my wallet and a couple hundred in my bank account, I don't know how much you have?"
"Few hundred only, too," Buddleia said.
"Hmm, yeah... we won't make it far with that," Sasha mused. "We'll have to start with something small and easy to earn some more cash first. Let me think on that for a while. Oh, and I still need to see something," she added with a smile. "I haven't seen your car yet."
"Yes, old Emmie," Buddleia nodded with a smile. "She over there, come, I show."
The purple and white vixen-taur led the way out of the shed and down the rutted dirt driveway. As they walked, Sasha noticed there was a wood fence along the dirt road that ran from left to right along the front of the farm grounds. Just inside the fence, off to the side of the driveway and a little hidden in the tall grass, sat a very old, rusty, beat-up car with a small trailer behind it. When they reached it, Sasha could see it was a 1948 Chevrolet Fleetline that once had been dark green although the paint was now badly faded and dull and peeling, or replaced by large swaths of surface rust. The old car was missing its left headlight, it only had the windshield and rear window left and those were both cracked, and it had a rusty roof rack attached to the roof. The small trailer attached to its hitch was not much better off; its only saving grace was that the floor and the sides were wood so there was no rust, but the tailgate was missing and both tires were flat.
Buddleia patted the side of the roof with a paw when they stood next to the car, at which time Sasha also noticed there was no driver's seat, or actually any seats at all.
"This old Emmie," the vixen-taur said with a light smile. "She not look good, but she always run. I just stopped her here because trailer got stuck with the flat tires and I was at my farm anyway so I walked rest of the way to the house."
"It looks like it was a nice car, and it still kinda is," Sasha smiled. "I have to ask, though; what's with that name of Emmie?"
Buddleia patted the side of the roof again.
"Paint is emerald green, so I called her Emmie. And she old, so, old Emmie."
"Okay," Sasha nodded with a light chortle. "That actually makes sense. Does she still run now?"
"Emmie always run," Buddleia nodded with a smile.
She opened the front left door and leaned into the car to turn the key in the ignition. The engine wheezed and chugged, and Buddleia had to try a time or two again, but eventually the engine sputtered into life with a low rumble, a long-drawn, slowly dying wheeze of the starter and a puff of blue smoke from the exhaust pipe. Sasha let go a light chortle and gave a light pat to the rusty left front fender of the slightly trembling old car.
"Well, I'm a bit impressed. Good Emmie," she chortled. "I take it there's no seats because you have that whole extra body on your butt?"
Buddleia nodded with a smile, leaning into the car again to shut off the engine.
"Yes, I not fit in seat, and grandfather not either so he took out seats."
"That also makes sense, yes," Sasha nodded with a smile as well. "Well, let's go back to the garden to lay in the sun so I can think, okay?" As they started walking back up the driveway, Sasha looked at the narrow field to the left of the driveway for a moment. "Do you know if the Ag Co-op buys grass or hay?"
"I not know if Co-op do, but livestock shop do," Buddleia smiled. "Straw too."
"Okay, good," Sasha smiled. "That would be a good starting point, but I don't know if we can get a tractor, the tedder, windrower and baler all running with the money we have left at the moment, so we'll have to figure something out for a quick and easy cash injection first."
Walking around the right side of the small farmhouse, they went back into the back garden. Buddleia sank down on the chest and tummy of her quadruped lower body, and as Sasha got down into the grass as well, the vixen-taur leaned over a bit and wrapped her arms around the human woman's thin, lanky in a close hug. Sasha smiled deeper and hugged Buddleia back, resting her cheek against the top of the vulpine taur's head as Buddleia nuzzled her snoot into the nape of Sasha's neck.
For several quiet moments, they sat like that. No words were spoken; no words were needed. When the embrace finally broke apart, Sasha turned her head a bit to press a soft smooch on Buddleia's cheek before scooting around a bit so she could lean against the vixen-taur's quadruped lower body while stretching out in the warm grass. Buddleia half-curled her quadruped lower body and lay her feral forepaws over Sasha's long legs - she also crinkled her muzzle when the lanky human woman lit a cigarette.
"Not good for you, Sasha."
Sasha smiled apologetically.
"I know. But I've been close to a chain-smoker for years, Leia, and I've really missed them the past week or so. I need one, they also help me settle down my mind and think clearly, and at the moment I need to do a lot of thinking on how we're gonna get this whole thing started so it'll work out."
Buddleia reached out to gently run one of her paws along Sasha's bare freckled shoulder and arm.
"I not gonna say what you can or not do," she said with a soft smile. "You mature woman, make your decisions yourself. But I be happier if you not do that because is better for you."
"I'll try," Sasha promised with a smile, softly petting the purple forepaws with the white toes resting over her legs with one hand. "I have a pack and a half left, let me finish those in an attempt to cut down and quit, okay?"
Buddleia nodded with another light smile. They lapsed into silence, relaxing in the soft grass and the warmth of the sun. Sasha calmly smoked her cigarette, and did actually light a second one not long after, as having gone without for several days had made itself felt. She also looked around while leaning against Buddleia's quadruped lower body, mainly past the left side of the small farmhouse at the grassy fields stretching out on that side and the narrow field in front of the house which she could just see from her position.
That field was as narrow as it was because the ground sloped a decent amount towards the left, Sasha noticed. The area of the field had been flattened out, which had created a quite sharp dip in the smooth slope, from which a couple of boulders were sticking out. The boulders were surrounded by sizeable elm trees which also ran in a fairly wide strip towards the fence all the way at the front of the farmgrounds with a few small birch and pine trees dotted between them.
Tossing the butt of her second cigarette in a galvanized pail Buddleia had put the ashes and leftover bits of charred wood from the campfire into, the human woman sat up straighter and actually leaned against the side of Buddleia's upper body, lightly petting the vixen-taur's upper back with a hand.
"Hey Leia? How much can Emmie carry?" she asked with a smile.
Buddleia tilted her head a bit.
"Mm? She carry me and five dozen bags of seed and fertilizer, that most I moved with her I can remember."
Sasha nodded slowly while mumbling to herself for a moment or two, then looking up again and pointing past the farmhouse at the elm trees.
"Do you think she could carry you, me and at least one of those trees?"
Buddleia tilted her head the other way and looked past the left side of the farmhouse as well, slowly running a paw over her bristly whiskers.
"Not quite sure... she struggle a bit, I guess. But she should manage, Emmie strong old car."
"Good. I've thought of a plan," Sasha nodded with a smile. "Tomorrow, we're gonna try and get those chainsaws in the workshop going. There's enough stuff there that we won't have to buy anything. If we get at least one going, that's already a win. We'll cut down a few of those trees and use Emmie to bring them to the sawmill, and if we can get that trailer she's pulling fixed, that will be a big bonus."
"But I like the trees," Buddleia said with a light smile.
Sasha smiled again as well and lay a hand on one of Buddleia's shoulders, giving a gentle squeeze.
"We won't clear-cut the lot, Leia, but we can't be sentimental either. We desperately need the money, and at the moment all we have that is most likely to get going are those chainsaws. With the money from the wood, we can get some of the other equipment fixed, and then we can start making hay from all that grass that overtook your fields. That will be our starting point, and once we've made enough money with the hay, we can fix more equipment and start turning the fields back into crop fields one by one over time."
Buddleia turned her upper body a bit and looked at Sasha with her head a bit tilted and her lips curled into a smile wide enough to expose the lower ends of her upper canine teeth.
"You big change, Sasha. You have confidence I not seen before."
Sasha smiled deeper and leaned in to hug the vixen-taur again.
"You gave me that, Leia. I know this work from my childhood, so I know we can do it, and knowing it will help you as much as you've been helping me is making me want to do the very best I can to make it work out."
"I think you right," Buddleia said softly, nuzzling her snoot into the nape of the human's neck again. "You make me believe it work. You give me hope. Thank you. We do it, Sasha."
They held the embrace for a few moments more before breaking apart. Once again settling down in the grass and relaxing, Sasha leaned her head against the side of Buddleia's quadruped lower body and looked up at the sky with a silent smile.
It was true. She felt things she had never felt before. She felt confident, she felt driven, she felt motivated. Without realizing it, the human woman had admitted to herself that she had been wrong as a child for hating her time on the farm of her grandparents. Everyone who had always called her 'farm girl' had been right the whole time. She was a farm girl. Drifting from job to job back in the city to find what she liked and was good at had been a waste of time; deep down and hidden inside, she had always known what she liked and what she was good at.
And now this, the current situation. Recuperating on the run-down old farm of the purple and white vixen-taur who had saved her life, seeing the sorry state everything was in, growing such a liking for Buddleia and being so grateful for all the help; it had filled her with a feeling of determination. A realization that she could make a difference, a positive difference. A desire to help this so very helpful and friendly foxtaur woman, really wanting to because she knew she could do it, and it would indirectly help herself as well to leave her old, miserable life behind and prove to the world, but even moreso to herself, that she was not the failure she had always felt she was.
They had a plan now. It was going to be hard work and take a long time, but things were going to improve so much.
This was a turnaround point.
