The days were going by calmly. There had been no honeymoon. There had not even been a wedding night, because Sasha was still not physically healed enough for anything like that - no matter how much she would have wanted it. And they did not need it all that much either; just being together was more than enough for the lanky human woman and the purple and white vixen-taur. New business partners running Butterfly Farm, new wives. It was a culmination. It was glorious. It was all they could have ever hoped for.
No gifts had been asked for; gifts had still poured in. The history of the small farm and its vulpine taur farmers who had been such beloved community folk, combined with their helpful and honest values having been passed on to the current vulpine taur farmer and the genuine joy, helpfulness and gratitude of the new human arrival had brought out the very best in the friendly, helpful and kind populace of the spread-out open valley. That small farm was going to blossom once more, the people could all see the newlywed farmers were putting their all into it, and they were going to make sure of its success.
At the sawmill, a large shed had been taken down years prior and stored in a corner as a flat-pack of constructed walls, roof panels and large sliding doors. It had been brought over on the back of the old MAN truck by the beaver man and the tall squirrel man currently operating the sawmill. Between the two of them, and with the help of Buddleia's strength raising and holding up the pre-constructed walls, the sizeable wood building had been re-constructed on the grounds of Butterfly Farm; backed up against the tree-covered hill, opposite the old workshop and to the right of the rusty silo, it made a perfect home for all the old vehicles and implements finding much less shelter in the rickety open shed next to the small farmhouse, its smaller side-building taking over the role of workshop so the small, worn-down original workshop building could be taken down to open up the open area to the right of the driveway even more.
The Agricultural Co-operation had brought over no less than three well-filled pallets. One of those contained three hydraulic cylinders, two boxes filled with hydraulic hoses and fittings and five 10-gallon drums of hydraulic oil, to reinstate the operation of the 1959 Skoda grain truck's three-way dump box. One was stacked high with old but still very reliable scaffolding. One was stacked high with bags upon bags of old, unsold crop seed which had nothing wrong with it other than that it was old. Several stacks of bags of chicken feed, rabbit feed and goat feed were personally delivered by the lion man who was the Ag agent running the Co-operation in the cargo box of a corrugated metal-paneled, rusty and faded gray 1956 Citroen 2CV AZU Fourgonette panel van - which he also left behind to serve as a car for Sasha to get around in. The bags of goat feed were inspired by the two men of the livestock dealer, who had accompanied the lion man with a fine mature Alpine dairy goat, a couple of large square bales of straw, an old, small deconstructed sheltering barn for it and a stack of wood fence posts and planks, which were set up in the front of the narrow field in front of the small farmhouse to create a small grazing pasture with shelter and sleeping accommodation for the goat in the area from the front fence up to where the first rabbit hutch plus run was sitting.
The hardware store in the tiny village had been closed for a day as the charcoal-colored skunk man running it undertook the four-hour drive to Butterfly Farm to bring them two old, scratched-up but still functional solar panels that missed their battery bank, a spool of cable, an old, dented chest freezer that missed half of its handle and an old, slightly rusty, large generator on wheels with a trailer tongue, making certain they would be accepted as it all were old things that, he said, would have been discarded otherwise - so it didn't seem like too expensive gifts. The other shopkeepers had banded together as well, and Mrs. Stebbins, the proprietress of the general store, had also undertaken the four-hour drive to Butterfly Farm to deliver two fine Verdant Island Lop breeding rabbits from the butchery, a male and another female, plus an entire roll of dry sausages; several heavy earthenware water bowls for the animals from the crafts store along with a whole box of beeswax candles, a five-arm candelabra, a couple of single-arm candlesticks that could be mounted against a wall and a ceramic tea set with teapot, warmer, four cups and saucers, a small milk jug and a sugar bowl; large burlap sacks full of rice, beans and potatoes from the greengrocer's and a crate of apples; two boxes filled with flannel shirts, pairs of shorts and a few dresses that were suited for both the tall lanky human woman and the fluffy vixen-taur from the spinnery/weaver's guild; a single-layer wedding cake and a 3-gallon drum of digestive cookies from the bakery; several pounds of butter, a whole wheel of cheese and a crate full of bottles with long-lasting yogurt from the dairy and of course a burlap sack full of flour and a care package that could last a year from her own general store. She had been accompanied by the Steppe wolf man who ran the garage and fuel station, who drove a tanker truck over to the farm, accompanied by his deer mouse assistant in a second tanker truck to drain the old unusable diesel fuel out of the old tank, clean the tank, and refill it with fresh diesel fuel.
It almost seemed as if the whole village had grabbed the surprise wedding as an opportunity to pour all of their helpfulness and kindness into the ailing old little farm, disguised as wedding gifts. And Sasha couldn't even protest against the overwhelming generosity, while Buddleia said nothing at all as she couldn't even think of anything to say.
However, it did spur both of them on with even more incentive to get things done, repaired and improved. A number of the gifts indirectly required the presence of working electricity on the farm; that was going to be their next big project.
The second morning after the avalanche of gifts, the human woman and the vixen-taur were relaxedly cuddling in the back garden of the small farmhouse after they had enjoyed their breakfast porridge, gently petting and brushing each other while their fur and hair dried from their bath in the pond.
"Hot damn, all the other people here are as nuts as you are, fuzzbutt," Sasha smiled with a light chortle as she sat on the back of the vixen-taur's quadruped lower body to brush her long purple hair.
"They so sweet!" Buddleia nodded softly. "I not know what to say, they make me cry!"
"I had a good goddam whale of a time keeping my tears inside too, I'll tell you what," Sasha nodded with a smile. "Damn, fuzzbutt, they accelerated our progress by a year at least in only a day or two!" She gave her head a light shake and pressed a few soft kisses on the vixen-taur's plushy ears. "I don't even wanna know how much money all that stuff they gave us is worth. I think I'd have a heart attack if I knew." Turning around, she leaned over and playfully rubbed both hands over the fluffy rump of Buddleia's quadruped lower body and gave her own narrow butt a light pat, chortling softly again. "They sure as hell made sure these butts are not gonna be doing any sitting around soon, though! These rears need to get into gear to get more work done!"
Buddleia happily wagged her bushy tail and even swished it to the side to tickle along one of Sasha's arms.
"Yes! We gotta fix windmill! I weld frame a lot already, it much sturdier now, and safe to climb." She turned her upper body a bit to look as Sasha still sitting on her lower back. "You sure you okay climbing it, Sasha? Is... high, and wobbly, and..."
She dipped her ears and lowered her head, but pricked her ears back up when Sasha lay more kisses on them.
"It'll be totally fine, fuzzbutt. I've climbed higher things than that, and I mean, look at me! I weigh next to nothing still, even despite your wonderful cooking, so that thing is not even gonna notice me squirreling my way up there." She let herself slide off Buddleia's lower back and lay on her own back in the grass next to the vixen-taur, reaching up to touch the tip of her left index finger against the cool, damp black pad of Buddleia's nose. "You gotta explain to me how that thing generates electricity, though. From what I remember of my childhood on the farm, those windmills were usually water pumps."
"This one was too, yes," Buddleia nodded, flicking out her tongue to lick at Sasha's finger. "Grandfather converted it because we have plumbing. I show you?"
"Yeah, it's about time we get our rears in gear I guess," Sasha chortled.
Buddleia nodded and got to her four feral feet, taking Sasha's hand to help the human woman to her feet as well. Walking along the right side of the small farmhouse, the vixen-taur stepped over to the back of the old windmill and started pushing bushes out of the way, revealing the windmill sat on a large rectangular slab of concrete that extended quite far into the copse of trees behind it and pointing at a large wooden trapdoor in the slab that had been partially overgrown with vines and bushes and grass.
"Is room under mill, see? We get to through that door."
She leaned over and took a hold of two massive metal rings recessed into the trapdoor, yanking and tugging on them. Eventually, the soil that had crept over the edges broke loose and Buddleia was able to pull the entire door free, tilting it on its side and leaning it against one of the trees of the copse behind the farmhouse and windmill. A very large opening was revealed, with stale, cool air wafting up from it, and Sasha could see a few very broad steps leading down into the darkness. Buddleia already descended a few of the steps, turning to the side to an old shelf on which a brass lantern and a lighter were sitting. The purple and white vixen-taur lit the lantern and held it up in her left paw, taking Sasha's left hand with her right paw to lead the way further down the broad steps.
The steps led into a sort of underground concrete bunker. Sasha had to duck as the ceiling was rather low, pressing her glasses up the bridge of her nose and holding her finger there so they wouldn't slip back off as she looked around. Near the front, where the windmill was, a thick metal pipe came straight down from the ceiling and connected into what once had been a water pump, but which had been swapped out for a very large, if pretty ancient, electric generator. From it, several thick cables connected to a giant accumulator bank covering the entire front wall and consisting of oversized batteries and capacitors. From that, more thick cables snaked along the walls, one of them disappearing into the front wall and the other one disappearing into the wall to their right.
Bending through her knees a bit so she didn't have to stoop her shoulders and bow down her head, Sasha looked at the large contraption and blinked for a moment.
"Holy hell, is that even still safe?"
"Is good, yes," Buddleia nodded with a smile. "Came from power sub-station by big city, is very professional, very durable. Not very old yet, too. Grandfather had installed only few years before I born."
"Doesn't it get overloaded?" Sasha asked, shuffling closer to the large contraption. "Like when there is a lot of wind or something?"
"No, has safeties," Buddleia smiled. "Windmill usually power grid of the house and workshop, excess power go in there so that can keep power on when no or too little wind." She walked over to a panel on the left wall and wiped dust and cobwebs off of it with her free paw. "I not understand these letters, but I know when full, it can power the farm for eight to ten months without more power coming in. And when is full, and is lots wind, windmill just power small grid of this farm and not used power is dispelled so is always steady volts from outlets."
"Okay, well, if this was a city sub-station accumulator, I'm pretty reassured that it'll be safe enough," Sasha nodded. "Do you suppose we can connect those solar panels to it, and maybe even increase the capacity?"
"I not know if we can increase capacity," Buddleia said with a light shrug of her upper shoulders. "I not have knowledge about that, you maybe better ask electrical people from sub-station. But look," she smiled, turning to another panel holding several large main breaker handles against the left wall. "Is connections here for more cables. We make hole in wall to put cable through, we can connect to here. We just turn handle on, and power from sun panels go into grid and then into batteries."
"Right," Sasha nodded again, with a light chortle. "I'm sure that with the insane amount of money we don't have to spend now because of all those gifts, we can rent a small backhoe from the Co-op to get down to that side wall and bury the cables. Where would you say would be the best place to put those solar panels?"
"I think, maybe roof of new shed?" Buddleia smiled. "Fred say is solid enough to carry the panels, and we can run cable along the inside so is neat and safe. And is always sun there, trees not in the way too much."
"That sounds like a good plan to me, alright," Sasha nodded with another light chortle. As she turned to shuffle back past the generator, she noticed a door in the right-side wall. "Hey, where does that door go to? Is there more to this bunker?"
"Yes, is old root cellar there," Buddleia nodded with a smile, making a wide gesture around her with her free paw. "Was only small brick room around pump, but when grandfather convert to generator, he had much larger concrete room built and root cellar too because digging was done anyway. I show you, look."
She walked over to the door and pushed against it for a moment, then took the handle to pull on it. After several moments of pulling harder and harder, and a number of protesting creaks from the old wood, the door opened with a sudden crack, wafting a quite unpleasant scent of old rotting from the doorway. As Buddleia stepped into the room behind it and moved the lantern around, Sasha looked around the doorway and saw some old racks that were beginning to collapse, with broken glass jars scattered on the floor in front of them, although some shelves were still sturdy enough to hold several rows of glass jars filled with what looked like the plum jam Buddleia had made. She also noticed, on some pallets along the wall right next to the door, several large wicker baskets full of plums - or at least they once had been full of plums, but mice and rats had eaten themselves an indigestion on the fruits and the baskets as well, and what was left over had long since rotted into a goopy pulp.
Buddleia held her free paw over her muzzle, both against the unpleasant odor and to muffle a yipped giggle at the sight of the old wicker baskets.
"Uhm... I maybe forgot about those."
"You don't say, fuzzbutt," Sasha sniggered. "C'mon, let's get the hell out of here and leave both those doors open so this hellhole can air out. That's a pretty large room though, I reckon we can use it as a cool-room for the goat milk and such."
The vixen-taur nodded and led the way out of the underground bunker, extinguishing the lantern and setting it back on its shelf before fully stepping outside. Sasha drew in a deep breath of the fresh outside air once they were back outside and shook her head with a chortle.
"Whew, okay, that's so much better. Alright fuzzbutt, let's take another little break for a bit, because I'm getting some ideas I wanna work out. Do you have some paper and a pencil for me?"
"I think I have, yes," Buddleia nodded with a smile.
She walked into the small farmhouse, while Sasha walked around it and sat in the grass in lotus position by the large tree stump where her laptop was still sitting on. She checked her messages while waiting for the vixen-taur to return, smiling at several emails containing congratulations on the wedding - even one from her young chocolate Labrador friend Millie that was formulated in such a way it was clear the canine girl had been crying while typing. The weather forecasts also still looked great, with clear weather and pleasant to warm temperatures predicted for the entire week to come.
As Buddleia walked into the back garden with some blank sheets of paper, Sasha shut down and closed her laptop and used it to lay the papers on so she could started sketching out what looked like a simple building.
"What you draw, Sasha?" Buddleia smiled as she lay on the chest and tummy of her quadruped lower body next to the human woman and rested her cheek on Sasha's shoulder.
"A small building," Sasha smiled. "I'm thinking it'll be handier to have a small building covering that giant hole in the ground so we can get in and out of it much easier. We can even repurpose the materials from that old workshop to build it." She looked up when she was done sketching and smiled again as she held up the paper. "There, think you could build this very intricate structure, fuzzbutt?"
"That so easy!" Buddleia yipped a chortle as she looked at the paper. "I build that in no time, Sasha, yes!"
"Good," Sasha smiled. "It'll indirectly provide us with either more money or more materials as well, because we'll have to knock down a few of the trees back there, so those can go over to the sawmill. But before you get to building, let's first fix that windmill so we have that done and out of the way."
Buddleia nodded with a smile and got to her four feral feet, helping Sasha to her feet as well. Walking back to the windmill, the vixen-taur pointed at the circle of blades leaning against the metal framework. She had welded up all the blades, and they had even sanded all the rust off of them and painted them with the mixed lavender-colored paint.
"Look Sasha, this is how works," Buddleia explained, pointing at the hub the blades were connected to. "See hole here, has notches. Up there is axle, has notches too, so notches must be matched to slide this over axle, see? Slide it all the way back, is hole in axle at the front, big bolt goes through there, and here, at the back, hub has holes too that bolts go in to squeeze it against the axle."
"That makes a bunch of sense," Sasha nodded. "Do we have those bolts? And how are we gonna get this whole thing all the way up there anyway?"
"I have bolts, yes," Buddleia nodded with a smile. "And is pulley at top, see? You climb up with rope, put rope through pulley and let come back down, I tie rotor to rope and pull up so you can slide it on axle."
"That'll work," the lanky human woman nodded with a smile. "And I see a keyway. So I'm gonna need... the bolts, the key, a wrench, and a rope, I think that's it. Oh, and a can of WD-forty." She chortled softly. "If you go and grab all that stuff, I'll go and put on my sandals and a pair of shorts, because I'm not gonna smoosh my bare cooch on those rusty bars, that's for damn sure. And I need some pockets to keep all the tools and stuff in, too."
Buddleia yipped a light giggle and nodded again.
"I go get, Sasha."
The purple and white vixen-taur walked over to the new workshop while Sasha went into the small farmhouse to put on a pair of denim shorts and her beach sandals. Back at the metal frame of the windmill, she took the bolts and the wrench Buddleia handed her and put them in her side pockets, and the spraycan of WD-40 was stuck in one of the rear pockets. Buddleia meanwhile tied a thick nylon rope around the rotor of blades and handed Sasha the other end.
Looking up at the top of the windmill frame, Sasha scratched the back of her head for a moment and pondered. Eventually, she gave a nod of her head, tied the rope around her waist and started climbing the metal frame, along the outside at the front. Only when she reached the very top did she shimmy herself between the bars to be at the inside of the frame - at which point the can of oil slipped from her back pocket and fell back down with several clanks as it bounced off some of the metal bars.
"Of course," the human woman smirked, planting her feet on one of the crossbars and leaning against a few of the other crossbars, looking down at Buddleia who was looking upwards with a slightly worried expression. "Hey fuzzbutt, can you grab that can and toss it back up here?"
Buddleia nodded, taking the can and looking upwards again with her head slightly tilted, ears flagging and dipping for a moment before she lowered her paw and flung the can upwards. Leaning over a bit, Sasha caught it in both hands and smiled.
"Thanks! You definitely don't throw like a girl, fuzzbutt!" she chortled. Shifting a bit to reposition herself, the human woman looked at the head of the windmill and the driveshaft sticking out the front. It indeed had the similar notches that Buddleia had pointed out on the hub with the blades. It also was rusty. "Of course. I should have brought sandpaper as well, way to go Sash." Giving her head a light shake, she checked a pulley that was attached to a crossbeam sticking out on the very top of the frame, sprayed it with the oil, untied the rope from around her waist and fed the end of it through the pulley, then tying it back around her waist and looking down at Buddleia with another chortle. "Hold on to that rope and lower me down, fuzzbutt! I need more stuff up here!"
The purple and white vixen-taur eeped and braced herself with all four of her feral paws while grabbing a firm hold of the rope as Sasha wrapped it around her hands a couple of times after shimmying back to the outside of the frame. With a little tug to check, the human woman nodded and started more or less rappelling down the tower. When she was on the ground, she untied the rope from around her waist and looked at Buddleia who was panting with her ears folded back and her eyes wide.
"What are you breathing so heavily for, fuzzbutt?" she chortled, poking Buddleia in the upper chest with a finger playfully. "I'm not that heavy, am I?"
"You... I scared, Sasha!" Buddleia panted. "I scared you gonna fall! That look dangerous!"
"Aww, c'mon Leia, I trust you to not let me fall, and I know what I'm doing, so please don't worry, okay?" Sasha smiled, running her fingers along the side of Buddleia's slender muzzle and over her cheek. "Hey, but c'mere, you big soft fuzzbutt you."
She wrapped her arms around the vixen-taur's upper shoulders and back and leaned in to press her lips onto Buddleia's lips, giving a few soft, playful little licks as well. Buddleia slowly lifted her ears back up and closed her eyes, wrapping her arms around Sasha's slim shoulders and holding the human woman close, eventually answering the kiss and holding it for several moments with a soft, content whine. When they broke apart, Sasha smiled and gave a playful little lick over the damp, cool black pad of Buddleia's nose while brushing her fingers over the vixen-taur's cheek.
"You're such a sweetie for worrying. Let's get this done so you won't have to worry anymore, okay? I promise I'll be careful."
Buddleia nodded and managed a smile as well, looking after the lanky human woman as Sasha walked over to the workshop. They had just moved everything from the old workshop in there the day before so it was still a bit messy and unorganized, but before too long Sasha found some sheets of sandpaper, folded them and stuck them in one of the pockets of her shorts. A moment or two later she had also found a metal wire brush and stuck that into one of her pockets as well.
Climbing back up the metal tower, the human woman made sure she had secure footing and support while she leaned up to the head of the windmill. With the metal wire brush, she removed most of the rust from the driveshaft and smoothed it out with some of the sandpaper. A few spritzes of oil were given as well.
"Alright, I think we're all set, Leia," she called down with a smile. "Bring'er up!"
Buddleia braced herself on her four feral feet again, wrapping the rope around her left arm and her paws a time or two. Slowly, the rotor of blades began rising up as the vixen-taur pulled on the rope as smoothly as she could, making sure to go slow and carefully so the rotor would not sway too much and bump against the tower, and pausing each time she hand-over-handed the rope to let the rotor settle down. When it was at the top, Sasha grabbed a hold of it and moved it around so it was facing the right way, every now and then twisting it this way or that and wiggling it back and forth as she tried to slide the hub over the driveshaft while lining up the notches.
"Up a bit more, Leia... thanks. Little slack... c'mon you bastard, get on there. And now back this way, perfect. Up a little again, Leia. C'mon now... oh fucking hell." Leaning aside a bit, Sasha looked down. "Is there a brake to this thing, Leia? The damn thing keeps spinning every time I try to slide it on."
"Oh, yes, is here," Buddleia nodded. She wrapped the rope around her arms another time and slowly stepped closer to the tower, using her right front feral forepaw to push down on a lever quite close to the ground with a clunk. "Brake is on, Sasha!"
"Thanks, that will make this a helluva lot easier," Sasha said, turning her attention back to the rotor.
She wiggled and moved it around a bit more, eventually managing to line up the notches and slide the hub over the driveshaft. Bracing herself on the thickest top crossbars, the human woman stuck her arms between the blades and grabbed a firm hold to pull the rotor towards herself. With some grunting, puffing, creaking and wiggling, she managed to slide it all the way over the shaft, feeling around with her fingers for the hole in the front of the shaft. Finding it, she fished one of the bolts from her pocket with her other hand and started threading it into the hole by feel as she could not really see what she was doing.
Once the bolt was through and secured with a nut and a cotter pin, Sasha took the other bolts and screwed them into the holes in the hub, pulling them as tight as she could with the wrench to secure the rotor to the shaft firmly. Five bolts seemed like a little overkill, but at least it looked like the windmill, while old, was well-engineered. Sasha untied the rope from around the rotor and looked down again.
"Don't pull that rope out of the pulley yet, Leia, just lower it down, okay? When you have both ends down there with you, can you grab me some stuff? And keep the brake on this thing."
"Of course, yes," Buddleia nodded, slackening the rope so Sasha could pull it through the pulley to lower it down. "What you need me to get, Sasha?"
"You know that big can with the handle I've been mixing that paint in?" Sasha smiled. "Get that, put in a can of the mixed paint, a flat-head screwdriver and a paintbrush, and some more sandpaper, and then lift it up to me up here, please. May as well clean and paint this tower while I'm up here."
"Oh, yes, is good idea," Buddleia nodded. "I get for you, Sasha."
She tied both end of the rope to one of the crossbars of the metal tower and walked over to the workshop. A few moments later she walked back to the windmill with the large can, tying one end of the rope to the handle of the can and pulling it up to the top of the tower, where Sasha grabbed it.
"Thanks, babe! This is gonna take a while now, so you can go ahead and do something else if you want to, okay?"
"I stay here, I look at you and make sure you not fall," Buddleia smiled. "Maybe I paint too? From bottom up, we be done sooner."
"Are you kidding me, babe?" Sasha laughed. "No you don't! Otherwise I'm gonna be stuck up here until the paint's dry, you silly fuzzbutt!"
"Oh! Of course, yes! Yee hee! I sorry Sasha, I not think about that," Buddleia nodded with a yipping giggle. "I just watch you then, Sasha! Is always so nice looking at you, yes!"
"What a sweet compliment to justify slacking off, fuzzbutt," Sasha giggled while she began sanding the metal beams and bars of the top of the tower. "Tell you what, while you look at me, why don't you start yanking some of that grass and those vines and bushes away from around that trapdoor? But mind the bushes, I saw some blueberry bushes down there, so pull those out carefully and we can replant those and have blueberries for in that porridge and to make jam with, okay?"
"Is good idea, yes!" Buddleia nodded again. "I go do, Sasha. You be careful, yes?"
"That's a promise, babe," Sasha smiled. "It may be tempting to dive onto you from up here, but I promise I won't do that or anything else silly. I have my sweet silly fuzzbutt right down there to do the silly things after all," she added with a light giggle.
Buddleia yipped a giggle again and let her tongue loll from the front of her muzzle in a way of poking out her tongue. She tied the rope back to a crossbar of the tower and stepped around the tower, laying on the chest and tummy of her quadruped lower body and leaning over to start pulling at the tufts of grass and vines that had crept over the trapdoor in the past few years. Her ears perked straight up and swiveled a bit when she heard Sasha started singing up in the tower as she sanded the rust off the beams and bars, churring happily and wagging her bushy tail at the words of Gordon Lightfoot's "Beautiful" that Sasha sang; just the last couple of choruses, in an untrained and off-key voice, but joyfully.
"And when you hold me tight.
How could life be anything but beautiful.
I think that I was made for you.
And you were made for me.
And I know that I won't ever change.
'Cause we've been friends.
Through rain or shine.
For such a long, long time.
And I must say, it means so much to me-e-e.
To be-e-e the one, who's telling you.
I'm telling you.
That you're beautiful."
"You beautiful, Sasha," Buddleia said to herself happily, shuffling this way and that on the chest and tummy of her quadruped lower body while she pulled up the loose grass and vines. "You so beautiful. I love so much."
"I love you too, fuzzbutt," came Sasha's voice from up in the tower with a chortle.
Buddleia's ears shot straight up and she turned her upper body to look up at the human woman.
"You hear that?"
"You said it out loud, babe," Sasha chortled. "And it's so quiet around here that voices carry, you know."
"Oh! Well, is true, and I say again and again and again, yes," Buddleia smiled. "I love, I love, I love my Sasha, I love so much, for always, yes."
"You're the sweetest, babe," Sasha smiled brightly. "I love you so much too, for even longer than always." She let go another light chortle. "Scoot that big fuzzy butt of yours around a bit, away from the tower, though. This paint drips, and I wouldn't want to get any of it on you, it's gonna be a bitch getting it out of your fur."
Buddleia yipped a cheery chortle and inched her four feral paws side to side, moving her quadruped lower body around while remaining in the laying-down position. Finding the blueberry bushes Sasha had mentioned, she dug around them with her fingers and carefully pulled them up with roots and all, bringing them into the back garden and replanting them along the left border of the garden, behind the vegetable patch the potatoes were growing in. A few random wild bushes were also pulled up, and for one of them the vixen-taur even got a spade from the workshop to dig it up and replant it in the front garden because it was a tamarisk bush that was just losing its last narrow plumes of pale pink flowers.
Sasha worked hard and fast as well, managing to keep up a decent speed because the metal tower didn't need to be perfect. She could just rub the worst of the scaly rust and flaking white paint off the beams and crossbars with a few passes of the sandpaper and cover the rest with the muted light lavender paint. It still made the tower look a hundred times better, and the human woman already had the top third of it done when it was time to stop for lunch.
As she climbed down the tower, she smiled at Buddleia braced in a crouching position on her four feral paws while tugging quite hard on a large shrub with quite finely-cut, purplish leaves and a few wide, flat clusters of light pink flowers.
"That's elderberry, Leia," she chortled. "Did your grandfather smell like those?"
"Uh, no?" the vixen-taur said, sending Sasha a slightly confused look.
"Then I guess your grandmother wasn't a hamster either," Sasha chortled, cheerfully shaking her head at Buddleia's even more confused expression and putting a hand on her shoulder. "Never mind, that's just some silliness from an old movie. But careful with that bush, let's dig it out and replant it, okay? We had elderberries on the farm too, and my granny made really nice jam out of them, and even wine. She called it sunny wine, because she always had these big glass jars steeping in the sunlight for a few days when it was elderberry season." She laughed shortly. "Unfortunately I have no idea what it tastes like, because they never let me have any. But it smelled real nice, that's for sure."
Buddleia smiled but also gave her head a light shake.
"I not like these berries much, Sasha, they bitter," she said, wiping her brow with one of her paws.
"You shouldn't eat them raw," Sasha nodded with a smile. "Always cook them in some way to bring out the sweetness. And they have a ton of nutrients and antioxidants." She chortled softly. "I have no idea what those are, but my granny always called them superberries because of how good they are for you."
Buddleia smiled again, standing up straight and wiping her brow again.
"I save bush for you, Sasha, you make jam from berries, yes? I wanna try jam you make, I sure is yum!"
"You got it, fuzzbutt," Sasha smiled, leaning in to smooch the side of Buddleia's muzzle. "My granny taught me how to do it, and I still know it by heart because it's such a simple recipe." She chortled softly as they started walking to the front of the small farmhouse. "Damn, now I really wanna try to make that wine, too! Say fuzzbutt, your grandparents didn't happen to make their own wine and you still have a carboy with a fermentation stopper sitting around somewhere, would you?"
"I not know what a carboy is, but grandmother had lady jane, she called it that," Buddleia smiled. "Big glass belly bottle with funny stopper, maybe what you meant? Grandmother use to make dandelion wine and gooseberry wine sometimes. Is maybe still way back on little roof over bathroom, I not sure, I not get that far back up there because roof slopes down."
"It sounds like it might be what I was talking about, yes," Sasha nodded with a smile. "We'll have a look for it sometime soon, okay? No rush, elderberry season is in the fall anyway so we have plenty of time." She started making some sandwiches while Buddleia heated up a can of soup for their lunch, giving her head a cheerful shake again. "Jeez, why did I even bring this up? Now it's filling my head with ideas of building a little winery and making it look all pretty and kindasorta professional and everything so we can make some different wines to sell. As if we don't have enough on our plates as it is already, ha!" She playfully nudged Buddleia with her elbow. "Also, did I hear you right when you said your granny made dandelion wine? Seriously? Dandelion?"
"Yes," Buddleia nodded with a smile, slowly stirring the soup. "We always have lots dandelions in fields. Before weeding with weeder, grandmother always go out and pick all dandelions, she put leaves in salad and make wine from flowers."
"Really," Sasha smiled with her head a bit tilted. "Have you ever tasted it? What's it taste like? I can't imagine it would be very tasty, to be perfectly frank."
"I taste, yes," Buddleia smiled. "Is quite nice actually. It taste... it taste like..." She crinkled her muzzle in thought so much her upper canine teeth and the tip of her tongue poked out and squinted her eyes. "Is... difficult. Little bit bitter, little bit sweet, little bit... strange taste." She opened her eyes fully and looked at Sasha with a smile. "Is kinda like, it taste like soil with honey, sort of? And has sort of lemon taste too because grandmother always put slice of lemon and slices of orange in."
"Ah, gotcha," Sasha chortled. She picked up a teacup and held it up high in her hand while looking at it, pretending to be at a wine tasting and adopting a posh voice. "Full-bodied, with an earthy tone, hints of citrus and a note of honey and bitters."
Buddleia chirped a yipping giggle.
"You silly, Sasha!"
"Look who's talking!" Sasha chortled. She set down the teacup and dipped her finger into the jar of jam, teasingly dabbing a little spot of jam onto the cool, damp black pad of Buddleia's nose. "And dammit fuzzbutt, stop putting ideas in my head! Now I wanna get bees to make honey too! We're not ready to expand that much that quickly, you know!"
Buddleia yipped another giggle and flicked her tongue over her nose to lick away the spot of jam.
"We can get bees from craft store, they have bee boxes to get wax to make candles, and missus Stebbins sell the honey for them. We do maybe later when everything settle down, yes?
"Later, yes, definitely later," Sasha chortled, sticking her finger into her mouth to suck off the jam. "I've said it before and I'll say it again because it's so damn important; one little baby step at a time! Even with all those lovely people here being so crazy generous, we still have to budget very wisely and very tightly to get this place back on its feet, so we have to take it slow and only do what we can, not add in all the stuff we want right away. We may be able to afford the initial investment, but we have to worry about all the recurring upkeep as well."
"Yes, we do slow," Buddleia nodded with a smile that showed her upper canines. "Slow, slow, slow, take long long time, much much time to spend with my Sasha noodle."
"Take that soup off the fire before it burns because I, am, going, to, kiss you, my sweet big fuzzbutt," Sasha chortled with a wide smile of her own.
Buddleia set the pot on the small counter and turned with her tail wagging, wrapping her arms around Sasha's shoulders and back as the human woman's arms folded around her own upper shoulders and back. Their lips met, soon followed by Sasha's small tongue dancing over and around Buddleia's broad tongue for several long, happy moments. The purple and white vixen-taur leaned deeply into the kiss, holding one paw on the back of Sasha's head and running her fingers through the human woman's long ginger hair while her other paw rubbed slowly and gently up and down Sasha's back. Sasha did much the same, tilting her head a bit to press as close as she could against Buddleia's muzzle and holding one hand on the back of the vixen-taur's head to give light scritches with her fingertips at the base of Buddleia's ears while holding her other hand on Buddleia's back.
It was the purple and white vixen-taur who eventually broke the kiss, reluctantly but still somewhat resolutely. Standing back up straight with her ears still lightly flicking and her bushy tail wagging, she held both paws on Sasha's shoulders while panting slightly with the end of her tongue hanging from the side of her muzzle.
"I love so much... hhh..." she murmured between her panting. "But we... hhh... better stop, Sasha... hhh... You make me... hhh... make me..."
"Horny?" the human woman chortled. Buddleia nodded with her ears dipped sideways but the wide smile still around her lips, and Sasha leaned back in to press a soft kiss on the damp, cool black pad of her nose. "Yeah, I suppose you're right, it'd be better to slow down a bit. We have lunch to eat first after all, and still a bunch of work to do after that," she nodded with another chortle.
Buddleia nodded again and leaned in as well to give an affectionate lick over Sasha's nose. She set the pot back on the stove and stirred the soup until it bubbled before filling two soup bowls with it. Sitting in the back garden, they enjoyed their lunch and stretched out in the grass for some content relaxing and cuddling.
Before too long, they were back at work however. The paint was still sitting there and should be used, so Sasha climbed the metal tower again to resume sanding and painting. Buddleia in the meantime used the spade to dig up the elderberry bush and rooted around between the trees to find a few more of the same bushes, digging them up as well and replanting all of them in a little patch in the left rear corner of the back garden, near where the overgrown dirt path came from between the trees. All the other bushes, as well as the vines and loose grass Buddleia had pulled up from around the large rectangular opening in the concrete slab were put in a heap behind the large new shed, between the trees of the large copse that covered the hill behind it.
They opted to have their dinner a bit later than usual, as Sasha was almost done with sanding and painting the windmill tower by the time suppertime came around. She was already standing firmly on the solid ground again, repeatedly bending over to do the last sanding followed by the last painting, while Buddleia rolled up the nylon rope and hung it from a nail in the wall of the new workshop and taking a hose with a spray nozzle to connect to a spigot at the back of the farmhouse so she could water the bushes she had replanted.
When Sasha was done with the painting and had hammered the lid back onto the can of paint, Buddleia could not resist pointing the hose in the human woman's direction for a moment, spraying Sasha right on the butt as she leaned over to put the can and the brush into the large can with the handle.
"Nyeck!" the lanky human woman squeaked, bolting upright and turning to look at the giggling vixen-taur with a grin. "Oh you are so gonna get it for that, fuzzbutt! Just wait till I have all this stuff put away!"
She walked over to the workshop with her long legs a bit wide as her shorts were soaked, putting away the paint and sandpaper and cleaning the brush in a jar of paint thinner. Making her way back over to the small farmhouse, she went inside to take off her sandals and her soaked pair of shorts, wringing them over the small sink a bit and taking them back outside to drape them over part of the picket fence at the front garden to dry. In the back garden, Buddleia was watering the elderberry bushes, her ears perking and swiveling as Sasha quietly walked back into the back garden and over to the vixen-taur. Buddleia turned her upper body, but before she could turn the hose as well, Sasha already made a flying leap to land on the back of the vixen-taur's quadruped lower body and began tickling her.
"Yeeeee! Yee hee hee! No fair Sasha! Yee yee hee! No tickles! Yeeeee!" Buddleia squealed while dropping the hose and flopping down onto the chest and tummy of her quadruped lower body and a bit over to the side, trampling with her four feral paws.
"Don't you talk to me about not fair, you sneaky fuzzbutt you!" Sasha giggled.
She continued tickling until Buddleia had rolled over onto both her backs, then lay her tall lanky self down all across the vixen-taur's soft fluffy body. Buddleia wrapped both her feral forepaws and her arms around Sasha's waist and shoulders and they sank into another loving kiss, which broke after only a couple of moments as Buddleia was still panting for air after all the tickling.
They lay in their content double embrace for several moments more until Buddleia had managed to stop panting enough to pull her tongue back into her muzzle. Sasha smooched the side of the vixen-taur's muzzle and rolled off of her with a wink.
"Before we start making dinner, whaddaya say we release that brake on the windmill and see what happens?"
"Yes!" Buddleia nodded happily.
She rolled back over to get to her four feral feet and helped Sasha up as well. Walking over to the windmill, the purple and white vixen-taur leaned over to pull the lever she had pushed down earlier back up and put her head in her neck to look up at the mill while slowly stepping backwards. There was just enough of a breeze to catch the fan blades, and with slow creaks they started turning while the head just as slowly turned a bit to the direction of the wind.
Buddleia let out a happy yip and trotted into the underground bunker, over to the back where the accumulator back began emitting a very light hum while on the panel next to the one with the breaker handles, a needle on a gauge twitched lightly. Galloping out of the bunker and over to the small farmhouse, the vixen-taur flipped a light switch and let out an almost giddy squeal when three of the five lights of a wagon wheel chandelier hanging from the open ceiling started glowing.
"Sasha! Is lights! Look! Is lights! Yee!"
She repeatedly flipped the light switch on and off with a child-like enthusiasm, letting out gleeful yips at each time the three lights glowed gradually brighter and brighter. Sasha also walked over to the small farmhouse and chortled cheerfully at the vixen-taur's giddy enthusiasm, sitting on the lower back of Buddleia's quadruped lower body and wrapping her arms around Buddleia's upper body from behind.
"That's a huge step in the right direction, babe," she smiled. "Few days of letting that accumulator charge, and we'll be back in business in full swing!" She batted at Buddleia's paw on the light switch with a hand and giggled. "Now leave that switch alone, you silly fuzzbutt you! It's time to make supper!"
Buddleia yipped a happy giggle and trotted over to the stove with Sasha still sitting on her back, her bushy tail wagging in wide arcs continually as she started cooking a rich stew, which they enjoyed in the back garden with a slice of the wedding cake for dessert, and to celebrate.
As Sasha had said; it was an enormous step forwards. Power to Butterfly Farm!
