The month of December in the northern end of the Minnaluna land usually tended to be rather overcast. Drizzles of rain and early morning fog that often hung around until the afternoon gave a sense of melancholy, but also coziness, especially with the festive decorations and lights even in a very tiny village like Rolling Hills. Christmas had come and gone, and it had been celebrated quietly on Butterfly Farm. A small present or two was exchanged, but the main, the largest present, was the togetherness. The tall, freckled human woman Sasha and the fluffy purple and white vixen-taur Buddleia had already given each other the best present there was to give; each other. And both of them also had given the best present there was to give to the chocolate Labrador girl Millie, by officially adopting the light brown canine girl as their daughter.
The only bit of exuberance they applied to the holiday season was sharing a somewhat luxurious Christmas dinner at the Marm Munchies Diner on the day after Boxing Day, as they had to be in the tiny village of Rolling Hills anyway for their weekly round of picking up mail, revenue and groceries by that time. There was a very sweet and heartfelt Christmas card from Ruth and Chester Stokes, Millie's aunt and uncle, addressed to all three of them in the mail, and as they made their round through the community village, all the villagers did give them gifts as well; mainly small yet artisanal items they had made themselves. And Sasha passed out a new version of the mini butterfly-shaped goat cheeses she had made, enriched with some of the fresh herbs she had been growing and decorated with a small red and green paper butterfly, to each and every person in the small village - and of course at the Ag Co-op and the BGA plant as well.
They postponed their trip to the BGA to sell the December batch of silage bales by a day or two as there was of course the New Year's celebration as well. But once that had passed, life returned to its normal slow, calm pace. With even the winters staying as warm and productive as they did due to the sub-tropical climate, the work kept going on as well. The animals still needed tending to, the grass still needed cutting, baling, wrapping and collecting to let it ferment into yet another new batch of silage bales. Millie returned to her cottage in the small village and her work at the Stebbins General Store, still slightly shaken, overwhelmed and in disbelief over the ginormous honour that had been bestowed upon her by Sasha and Buddleia, but happier than she had ever been. Two more litters of baby bunnies had been born, from the other female Verdant Island Lop rabbit and the new wild Omutima Speckled female rabbit Buddleia had caught during the time Sasha had traveled to Fossil City and Fennfield for the adoption procedure, and they were growing well and already exploring the inside of the large hutch in the female rabbit run. Plant growth had slowed down, and that combined with the lower temperatures and somewhat increased precipitation most of the days made for a perfect time to plant new plants for the upcoming season, as well as doing some quite major earthworks.
With the rickety open shed that had been to the right of the small farmhouse taken down, there was a fairly large open area between the house and the slab of concrete upon which the windmill was sitting. Taking advantage of that area being fully opened up, Sasha had contracted the charcoal and white skunk man Paul Speel from the hardware store to enlarge the underground bunker as that work could now be done properly from above. A sizeable area had been dug out, and Paul Speel had in turn involved a contractor from Arfafield to provide pre-cast concrete slabs which were used to create floors, walls and roofs of two additional rooms to the underground bunker. Doorways were cut into those rooms from the inside, and once everything had been properly sealed, the dirt that had been dug up was used to fill the open area back in and make it look as if nothing at all had happened there. Sasha put in an order with the Botany Boutique in Rolling Hills, and during the few days it took for that order to arrive, she rearranged the equipment in the underground rooms, finally putting all the stainless steel freezers and refrigerators, tables, counters and cabinets in the underground bunker and creating separate work areas to process the milk from their goat Choco into butter and cheese, to process meats from the butchery in town and a couple of deer Buddleia had hunted into sausages, and to process fruits into jam, syrup, juice and wine. By the time that had all been finished, the order at the Botany Boutique had come in and was picked up, and Sasha could also take advantage of the resting period of the plants during that time of the year by turning the open area over the underground bunker, where the rickety open shed had been, into a small but quite varied berry garden, planting rows of blueberry shrubs, gooseberry shrubs, black and red currant bushes as well as raspberries, blackberries and cloudberries and even some cranberries in strictly separated and contained planters Buddleia had built to prevent the quite prolific plants from completely overgrowing the nearby herb garden and the back garden behind the small farmhouse where Buddleia grew her vegetables.
It looked so much better than the somewhat dilapidated, rickety old open shed that used to be in that spot. And with that, January had passed.
The time of year being perfect for the planting or re-planting of larger plants was also proven by the University for Forestry and Agriculture from the city of Enfanor. They had gotten in touch with Sasha again and set up another appointment to visit the farm, this time also bringing a supply of saplings of the newly developed super trees so they could be planted in the area Sasha had designated for them. In the second week of February, once the January batch of silage bales had been sold to the BGA plant and the grass fields had again been cut, baled and wrapped, the same 2015 Mercedes-Benz Sprinter van converted into a mobile lab - or at least a very similar-looking one - had arrived at Butterfly Farm pulling a trailer holding several crates of tree saplings.
Slightly remarkably, it were three different female biologists who exited the large vehicle after it had parked in the open area in front of the large shed; a rather dark-colored ocelot woman, a tall and somewhat wiry chestnut-brown Belgian Hare woman - who actually was a rabbit rather than an actual hare - and a blue-gray shorthair tabby cat woman, all wearing knee-long white lab coats but nothing else. Sasha therefore saw no reason to put on any clothes herself as she walked over to the vehicle together with Buddleia to meet the three women.
"Good afternoon, ladies, good to see you made the journey alright. Sasha Farr, pleased to meet you."
"Thank you," the Belgian Hare woman smiled, shaking Sasha's hand. "Janni Baston, pleased."
"Sandy Nightz, with a Z at the end," the ocelot woman introduced herself, also shaking Sasha's hand.
"Barbara Westing," the tabby cat woman introduced herself as well while shaking Sasha's hand in turn.
"I Buddleia!" Buddleia said cheerfully. "But you can say Leia, like Sasha do, is much easier, yes!"
"It's very nice to meet you both," the ocelot woman Sandy smiled. "Thank you for having us, and thank you for this opportunity as well. Despite the number of years we've been working on this strain of trees, it's been tricky finding real-life test grounds for them so far."
"You can thank Daniel Tawnto from the Ag Co-op for that, he's the one who brought this whole thing to my attention and suggested we'd take the chance," Sasha smiled. "And we so happened to acquire a bit of land fit for this project, plus we have plenty downtime with the type of work we're currently doing on this farm, so I figured, why not? It'll help out both of us, so that's a win-win in my book."
"We certainly appreciate it very much," the Belgian Hare woman Janni nodded with a smile. "Could we have a look at the area?"
"By all means," Sasha nodded, half-turning and pointing down the dirt path running between the fields on the left of the farmhouse. "If you go down that path right there, you'll drive right into the patch of land we're aiming to use."
"That would probably be handiest, yes," the ocelot woman Sandy nodded with a smile as well. "We will have to do a check or two, and all of our stuff is in the lab, so we may as well bring the whole thing with us."
She got behind the wheel of the mobile lab and very carefully and slowly drove it down the path between the left-side fields, while the other two women walked down the path together with Sasha and Buddleia. Parking on the turn-off that led in the direction of Cherry Blossom Farm, the ocelot joined her two fellow biologists again as they started walking through the grass between the re-routed dirt roads, taking some samples of the soil and the vegetation, with Sasha and Buddleia pointing out small things every now and then.
"This is a very nice location," the tabby cat woman Barbara remarked. "I understand you're currently harvesting this grass, and you may grow a crop here in the coming season?"
"That's correct," Sasha nodded, pointing to the dirt road running right along the left side of the farmgrounds and the dirt road that had been re-routed to run from behind the farm towards the forest and across the rocky plateau to eventually join up with the dirt road leading towards Cherry Blossom Farm. "The plan is to divide this patch of land up into two arable fields by means of a dirt path from Sawmill Road over there, straight in line with that path between the fields, and up to the extended Waving Grain Road over there, so we'll have a smaller, more or less rectangular field on this side here, and a longer and larger rectangular field with a sort of trapezoid section that bulges out towards the forest on that side."
"And what section was planned for the use of the trees?" the ocelot woman Sandy asked.
"Right here," Sasha smiled, walking over to where the re-routed extension of Waving Grain Road ran across the top of the rocky plateau and gesturing with her hands. "The plan is to cut diagonally from here, more or less parallel to the road up to there, and then straight across to the other road over there, right along the line where the ground starts sloping upwards. So that will leave a wide strip free here along the diagonal line and the road here, and that fairly sizeable triangular section up there." She turned and walked back along the road running across the rocky plateau. "Similarly, over here the plan is to cut straight parallel to the road here, up to about there, then diagonal towards the road, parallel along it again for a ways, and then diagonally back towards it over there, along the line of where the slope starts. Along this field, that would leave a wide strip open alongside the road here, plus two more or less half-ovals between the diagonal lines and the bends in the road."
"That's a decent amount of land for the trees to grow," the rabbit woman Janni said, nodding slowly. "It looks like it will also provide ample space between the field and the trees so both the trees and we should not be in the way when gathering data while you work the fields. May I ask what type of crop you were planning to grow in these fields once they are created?"
"Sunflowers!" Buddleia chirped happily. "We grow lots lots sunflowers, yes! All sunflowers here, all there, all sunflowers! Be so pretty! Yes!"
The ocelot woman Sandy could not stop herself from letting go a high-pitched giggle.
"Hee heeeee! Ah, apologies... Your speech is very distinct! And quite amusing, if you don't mind me saying so."
The Belgian Hare rabbit woman held a paw over her elongated and very slender muzzle to hide a chortle.
"Do please excuse my colleague doctor Nightz. She does however raise a point; your speech is very distinct indeed, missus Farr. Do you mind me asking how you came to develop such an unusual speech pattern?"
"Is all good!" Buddleia chortled with more chirping yips. "She giggle, is funny! And... I not think I develop? Is more, I forget to develop, yee hee! We foxtaur folk, we still bit more animal-like, yes. My family, my line, they be farming here four hundred years, all alone at first, yes. Two hundred years ago, village came, but is far away so still not much contact. My grandparents, they talk more like normal, and I do too then, but I all alone here for long long time since. Almost no contact with folk in village, if I not talk to squirrels and bunnies out here, I forget how to talk at all, yee hee!"
"You can believe me, when I first met her last year, her speech was even worse than this," Sasha smiled with a light chortle. "It has improved a decent bit since then because she had me to talk to and to actually respond to her, and we have increased our contact with the townsfolk in the village of Rolling Hills as well. But the village is almost a hundred eighty miles away from here, and with the vehicles we have, that is a drive of a good four hours, so we only get to the village once a week because it takes a whole day to get there and back here again."
The ocelot woman had started giggling again during Buddleia's explanation, and was doing heroic attempts to pull herself together.
"Heeeee, eehee, eehee hee... oh goodness, I do apologize! Hee hee... oh my, it just sounds so funny, but I promise I'm not laughing at you, honest." She pulled in several deep breaths with both her paws over her muzzle and her eyes closed quite tightly. "Ehh, hee... I can well imagine it must get very lonely way out here, however, with how far everything is removed from each other. And if you're just working by yourself, I can see how you would not have a need to speak, and it makes sense that would be a cause of unlearning the ability to speak."
"Allow me to also please beg your pardon for doctor Nightz, she has a quite ticklish funny-bone," the tabby cat woman Barbara said with a smile that showed she was doing her best herself not to giggle as well. "It is admittedly rather amusing to hear, but that does not excuse getting the giggles like a schoolgirl. We are still scientists after all, so we ought to be mature about anything, no matter how unusual or amusing it might be."
"But is good!" Buddleia chirped happily. "Giggles is happy, and I like folk be happy, yes! Happy is best!"
"Nevertheless, it is rather impolite to laugh due to the way you speak," the rabbit woman Janni said with a smile. "But it is very nice to know you are not taking offense at it. And might I ask if it would be alright to speak with you further about your folk and your lineage when we may have some time to spare? What you have explained so far already sounds very interesting, especially as there are so few of your kind around in this country and not very much is known about your kind therefore."
"Yes! Is good!" Buddleia nodded cheerfully. "I not know lots details, but I know some history, maybe you not know. I tell you so you know too, yes!"
"That would be wonderful," the tabby cat woman Barbara smiled. "Although for now, I think we might better travel further to the sawmill where, as I understood, we are allowed to set up our laboratory and make use of lodging they have on the premises."
"Yeah, Fred and Frank offered that to your other colleagues who were here last time," Sasha nodded with a smile, pointing down the road that ran alongside the left of the farmgrounds. "It's very simple, just follow Sawmill Road here, and if you forget to hit the brakes after about two hours, you'll run right into their yard."
"That sounds very straightforward," the tabby cat woman Barbara smiled, shaking Sasha's hand and also shaking paws with Buddleia. "Let me again thank you for this opportunity, and with your permission, we shall unload the saplings here and return tomorrow morning to assist you with planting them."
"Sounds good to me, we only have our steady daily morning ritual of breakfast, a bath and tending to our animals for the coming few weeks," Sasha smiled. "With the time to process the milk included, we're done with that around ten o'clock, so depending on what time you get up and whatever you have to do to get ready, you'll probably get here by the time we're done with our morning routine."
"Very well, in that case we shall most likely see you tomorrow morning round and about ten o'clock," the rabbit woman Janni smiled, also shaking Sasha's hand.
"Yes, thank you both so much again, and again, my sincerest apologies for my very un-scientific behaviour," the ocelot woman Sandy smiled, having managed to get her giggles under control.
She shook Sasha's hand as well, and eeped but then giggled again when Buddleia took her into a big hug.
"You funny! I like you! Yes!"
The purple and white vulpine taur also took care of unloading the crates with the saplings in them by simply grabbing them in both arms and lifting them off the trailer to set them down in the grass alongside the dirt road running across the top of the rocky plateau. After another expression of gratitude and more goodbyes, the three female biologists got into the Mercedes-Benz mobile lab and drove off down the road leading towards the sawmill. Sasha folded an arm around the shoulders of Buddleia's upper body and playfully scritched at the back of one of the vixen-taur's perky ears with her fingertips as they looked after the large vehicle.
There was more progress! And it seemed like there was a good possibility that there was something more data might be collected on than just the newly developed fast-growing trees!
