The routines were pleasant. They gave a regularity to the days. And in mid-summer, the addition of the tropic's schedule to the daily routine also gave a nice period of rest, relaxation and recuperation to the days.
But if there was one thing to say against routines like that; they made all the days blend together. Especially when working on a farm, where the work, the routines, were seven days a week, there were times when one could forget what day it was. Or how many days had passed since something less ordinary had happened that was outside of the regular routine.
At Butterfly Farm, the fluffy purple and white vixen-taur Buddleia and the tall freckled human woman Sasha found that to be the case. It had seemed like only yesterday that the routine midday nap together with the three female biologists had been interrupted by the longhaired, short-legged black and white quadruped farm cat Bubliny, who had been investigating a box stashed way in the back corner of the flat ceiling over the small bathroom in the old farmhouse. It had seemed like only yesterday that Buddleia and Sasha had gone to the tiny village of Rolling Hills the next day for their routine groceries run and revenue round, bringing along the vintage Harmony f-hole guitar that had also been discovered way back on the flat ceiling to have it restrung and to get a new case for it. It had seemed like only yesterday that they had checked their silage bales and found them ready - actually, that was only yesterday.
All of a sudden, it was July. Sasha had to actually check her phone for the date after counting the tally marks on the silage bales. Had thirty days actually passed already? Yes, they had. It was July. And that meant it was time for a different routine; the start of the month routine. Silage bales were loaded onto the flat deck of the 1953 MAZ-200 truck to be brought over to the BGA plant and sold; only about 280 of them, as the only grass they now mowed and baled was in the very long field 6, the field between Waving Grain Road behind the farmgrounds and the narrow, elongated strip of forest, and field 3, the somewhat narrow rearmost left-side field bordering the rear fence - and the narrow strip of land between the narrow dirt path delineating the right property line of Butterfly Farm and the right fork of Waving Grain Road that connected to Butterfly Road running in front of the farmgrounds. But that was still almost $59,000 in silage. And perhaps that did slow down their progress on the way to having a million dollars in the company account; it was still progress.
There was still a bit of routine. After their visit to the BGA plant, they made their way over to the tiny village of Rolling Hills to pick up their revenue from the goat cheeses and pick up their weekly groceries - after having taken some rest and a cold drink in the tavern for the last part of the midday rest period. That already was a slight deviation from their regular routine in town, and there was another one after the midday rest period. While Buddleia visited the other stores to get some fresh vegetables, bread and meat, Sasha went over to the new carpentry workshop and store, as she had brought the 1934 Harmony guitar they had found to that store to be at least somewhat refurbished. The silvery-tipped white gerbil woman Felicia Bakersfeld however mentioned that after she had repaired a couple of small cracks in the body of the guitar and a starting split in the neck, she had brought the guitar over to the crafts store to have the brass parts refurbished and new strings put on.
With a smile, Sasha thanked her for the care she had taken of the old instrument so far and went over to the crafts store. The moment she stepped inside, the agouti and white Mountain hare woman Kimberly Flores, the chandler, looked up from the counter she was manning and smiled, stepping around the side of the counter.
"Sasha! Good afternoon! I know why you're here!"
"Yeah, I need some materials like metal wire and rods to help me build a statue out of sausages," Sasha sniggered.
Everyone laughed, and Kimberly shook her head cheerily.
"Ooo-kay, so maybe that wasn't what I had thought you came in here for. I figured you'd just come to pick up your guitar."
"Leia's guitar, but yeah, to be honest that is just what I came here for," Sasha nodded with a chortle.
"Right! Well, c'mere, we got it in the back," Kimberly smiled, leading the way through the store and into the workshop at the back. "Feli's still working on building a hard-case for it though, so it's okay if you want to leave it here for a while more. But here, look! Doesn't it look fantastic?"
She picked up the worn black-coated f-hole guitar from a cabinet. Overall, it still looked the same; there was no evidence of repairs having been made, and in many places the black coating was still completely worn away. But there were subtle differences. The dull brass tonebar, the brass strip on the bridge and the brass string tuners on the back of the headstock had all been polished and actually looked like brass again, edges of grime had been polished off the yellowed ivory-colored knobs of the tuners, six new strings were in place, all the steel frets had been polished, between some of the frets the faded dot markings had been touched up with ivory-colored paint, and the whole guitar gleamed with a semi-glossy sheen.
Sasha lightly ran her fingers over the smooth surface of the guitar's body and smiled.
"It does look great indeed. Felicia's done amazing work, I can't even tell where the repairs she said she's done are. And I love how you made the brass parts look like new, but kept the rest looking as worn as it was."
"Of course! That's the whole personality of this guitar," Kimberly nodded with a smile as well. "Well-loved, well-played, it tells a story. And it will continue to do so, I gave everything a coating of beeswax so it's well-protected too." She chortled softly. "Actually, I gave it two coats, because the wood was so thirsty it soaked up the entire first coat."
"That's really nice, thank you," Sasha smiled. "Any specific reason you did the work on this guitar, rather than Sonya?"
"Sonya helped," Kimberly chortled. "But yeah, I know how to treat an instrument like this, because I play guitar myself. I have a gorgeous nineteen oh-eight Lyon and Healey parlor guitar, you know, and I even give lessons sometimes."
Sasha canted her head a bit and slowly ran a hand over her nose and mouth.
"Really? That's interesting to know. Leia said her granny tried to teach her how to play this guitar, but she was never very good at it. And I've had some lessons in high school, but I hardly even remember how to play anymore. And it would be such a shame to just let this guitar sit and collect dust because we can't play it, it deserves much better than that. You reckon you could teach me to play at least a few simple songs?"
"If you've had lessons before, no matter how long ago; easy!" Kimberly nodded with a deeper smile.
"Even if I can only be in town once a week?" Sasha chortled.
"Yeah, weekly lessons are just fine, honey," Kimberly smiled. "Of course I'd very much advise you'd practice as much as you can during the week, whenever you have time in between all your farm work, but one lesson per week works just fine."
"Hmmm, yes, okay," Sasha nodded, running a hand over her nose and mouth again. "You know, even with a decent hard-case, I don't quite fancy bringing this old guitar on such a long bumpy trip every week. Last thing I want is for it to get damaged somehow. Any suggestions?"
"Simple!" Kimberly nodded with a chortle. "Get a practice guitar. You can get a cheapy acoustic for thirty, forty bucks, and they work just as well to learn on as a five hundred dollar vintage brand-name guitar."
"Of course, that's so simple I should've thought of it myself," Sasha chortled. "Right, that makes my next question; can you get me one?"
"Also simple!" Kimberly nodded with a louder chortle. "C'mere, let's go into my office for a moment, I need to get behind my computer."
She set the old Harmony guitar down on the cabinet carefully and led the way into the chandlery. Sasha followed the hare woman into the same kitchenette that doubled as an office she'd had her long talk about beekeeping with Jasper Nicla in and sat down by the small desk while Kimberly sat down behind it, booting up the computer that was on the desk. After some typing and clicking, she motioned Sasha over to the other side of the desk and pointed at the screen.
"This is the site of a music store in Arfafield. I get most of my teaching material and strings and such from there, so I have an account there, see? I need some new strings anyway, and look at these options, I can get this basic chords book for you, and something like this small basic Aria acoustic guitar. Along with a basic carrying case, it comes to only forty-seven ninety-five, that's very doable, wouldn't you say?"
"That's so affordable I would call it cheap, yeah," Sasha nodded with a chortle. "Works for me, I'd be much less apprehensive carting a guitar around from our farm to town here and back every week when it's such a cheap and basic new guitar rather than an almost hundred year old one that used to belong to my wife's grandmother."
"In that case," Kimberly chortled, doing a bit of clicking with the mouse, "it's hereby ordered, honey. It should all be here by next Wednesday, so shall we say we start lessons next Friday, when you're in town again? Lessons are an hour long, for ten bucks."
"Sounds good to me," Sasha nodded, grinning lightly. "I do however assume the lessons would be after the hours of the store here being open?"
Kimberly chortled again, shutting off the computer after a few more clicks of the mouse.
"In general, yes, that would be the case. But in general, it's folk from here in town taking lessons; for you it's a bit of a different case as you have such a long way to come from your farm. Especially now with the tropic's schedule, that would make the times kinda ridiculous as our opening hours end at seven in the evening, and if you'd have an hour-long lesson after that, and then still have to drive all the way back to your farm, it'd be close to midnight before you're home again! But I don't think the others would mind all too much if I'd take an hour of store time every Friday to teach one of our lovely farmers how to play the guitar, so you could just come during the day, honey."
"That's good to know," Sasha chortled, following Kimberly back out of the chandlery and into the crafts store. "And that definitely works for me, it's actually kinda exciting in a way, heh." She curled her lips into a playful grin. "So then, could you maybe give a sample of what might possibly be gotten out of Leia's granny's guitar?"
"Why of course!" Kimberly nodded with another chortle.
She pulled near a low rolling chair from one of the workbenches, sat down and took the old Harmony guitar into her lap. Checking the strings for a moment and putting a capo on the third fret, the hare woman started finger-picking quite rapidly, playing about half of Davy Graham's "Anji", a rather cheery, upbeat instrumental tune. The others in the workshop looked around with a smile, and Sasha canted her head again as she looked at the fingers of Kimberly's left paw dancing up and down the strings between several of the frets just below the capo, and the thumb and two, sometimes three fingers of her right paw rapidly picking at the strings just above the bridge.
Kimberly did only a couple of minutes of the tune before resting the guitar in her lap and her right paw on the top of the guitar's body, looking up at Sasha with a smile.
"Goddam, well, there's definitely no doubt you know how to play this thing, honey," Sasha chortled, giving her head a light shake. "That was one hell of a sample! I kinda doubt I'd ever get to that level, haha!"
"Anything is possible if you put your mind to it, honey," Kimberly smiled, laying the guitar on the cabinet again and standing up with a chortle. "And don't worry, I'll start you out simple with finger practices and strumming; the picking comes later."
"Right," Sasha nodded with a mild grin. "So how many lessons do you foresee I might need?"
"That all depends on what you still remember from school, how quick you are on picking up on what I teach you, how much you practice in between and how much talent you may have hidden somewhere, honey," Kimberly chortled.
"Right," Sasha sniggered softly. "Well, I suppose we'll start finding out by next week, then. In the meantime, take good care of Leia's granny's guitar as I'll be leaving it here for the time being, okay?"
"You bet, honey, I'll put it with my own guitars so it'll be safe and sound, don't worry," Kimberly smiled.
"Perfect, thanks a bundle," Sasha smiled. "I'll see you next week then, honey."
She waved cheerfully as she stepped through the store and out the front door. Outside, she halted for a moment and puffed, as she felt like she had just walked into an oven. The breeze had turned quite warm, the atmosphere had become oppressive, and looking up, the tall human woman noticed the sky had overcast with a quite dark gray color - not even individually distinguishable clouds, just gray. Clearly, the weather was about to turn.
At the butchery, Buddleia had just stepped outside as well and flicked her bushy tail and perky ears in a similar reaction to the atmosphere. Sasha walked down the dirt road to where the vulpine taur was standing, quickening her pace when a rumble rolled across the sky and Buddleia visibly stiffened.
"We'd better hurry home before this storm breaks, babe," she smiled, wrapping an arm around Buddleia's shoulders.
Buddleia shook her head and set her wide golden eyes upon Sasha's face.
"No! No, we not drive, Sasha! Is dangerous! We not drive! No!"
"You know what, you're absolutely right, babe," Sasha cooed comfortingly, giving a light squeeze to Buddleia's shoulder. "Tell you what we'll do; we'll go to the tavern, relax a bit and have a nice cool drink and wait until the storm has passed, okay?" She started gently pressing into the vulpine taur's side with her tall body, directing Buddleia into the direction of the narrower dirt road running past the diner and the tavern. "C'mon, it'll be cozy and safe in there, and we can have some nice talks with Ralph and whoever else is in there and may come in later, okay?"
Buddleia nodded slowly, her fanned-out bristly whiskers twitching and her ears flicking back and forth while she held her bushy tail pressed up against the rear of her quadruped lower body. Sasha kept gently coaxing the trembling vixen-taur along and led her over to the large bar once they had stepped into the tavern.
"Heyyy, Buddleia, Sasha, nice to see you two," the fluffy black and white Forest Cat man Ralph said from behind the counter. "Dropping by for a drink before heading home, are you?"
"We're actually coming to shelter from that brewing storm, Ralph," Sasha smiled, nodding her head in the direction of the door. "So it may well be we'll be here for a few hours."
"Of course, no problem!" Ralph smiled. "Make yourselves comfy! Can I get you anything?"
"I'll have some of that wild berry stuff of your wife, Ralph," Sasha smiled with a light chortle. "The non-alcoholic kind, please, because we do still have to drive home once that storm has passed, and I'm driving."
"Wise decision," the feline man nodded with a chuckle. "And how about you, Buddleia? Your usual?"
"Uh... yes... please..." Buddleia nodded slowly, sitting on her haunches with her bushy tail curled tightly around her feral feet and her ears constantly flicking and dipping.
Ralph nodded and leaned over the bar for a moment to give a gentle pat to Buddleia's shoulder before pouring a glass of home-made mixed berry juice for Sasha and taking a can of mild pale citrus ale, emptying that into a tall glass as well and setting it on the bar for Buddleia. The fluffy purple and white vixen-taur took the glass with both paws and held it up to her slender muzzle, taking small sips every now and then while looking this way and that and ceaselessly flicking and dipping her ears. Sasha sipped from her glass of berry juice with a small smile, holding one arm wrapped around Buddleia's shoulders and giving a light, comforting squeeze every now and then.
Outside, the thunder rolled off and on a bit more frequently, and every now and then it rolled into the tavern as well whenever someone came in. It didn't exactly help Buddleia's peace of mind, but the physical contact of Sasha close by her, the calm conversation with Ralph and the quiet hubbub of the voices of the people gradually gathering in the tavern did provide a comforting atmosphere that allowed the vulpine taur to remain semi-relaxed. She did wave at and greet the people that came in every now and then, and even managed to display the lower halves of her upper canines in a small smile as she answered Ralph's question about how the farm was doing with how many sunflowers they had planted.
A couple of hours later, Sasha managed to persuade Buddleia to sit by a table and ordered some food for supper. Some of the proprietors of the other stores also entered the tavern, cheerfully greeting Buddleia and Sasha, and Ralph's wife Winnie, a roan-and-liver-colored shorthair German Pointer dog woman, came out of the kitchen behind the bar to personally deliver two bowls of a thick mushroom cream soup made with freshly picked mushrooms and a thick slice of rye bread, showing Buddleia and Sasha a few pictures of a lovely open spot in the forest to the right of the village where she had picked the mushrooms. The room gradually filled up as well, with more and more of the other store proprietors coming in for supper as well as several of the regular people living in the village, and the calm, cheery hubbub managed to eventually calm Buddleia down a bit more.
It was shortly after eight o'clock in the evening, according to the very ornate cuckoo clock behind the bar, that a bit of a shock walked in through the door. The thunderstorm was slowly drifting away, even if there were still occasional flashes and rumbles, and the door of the tavern gave a light creak that was lost in an outcry from Sasha when the tan Katanga lion man Daniel Tawnto from the Co-op stepped inside and held the door open to also let a woman step into the tavern, a melanistic Ethiopian lioness with a fur so dark it was almost black, and long raven-black hair.
"DAN?!"
"Oh! Hey Sasha, hello Buddleia!" Daniel smiled, looking up at the outcry and waving. "Didn't expect you two to be here at this time of the evening. How are you?" His smile widened as he held out his paw at the black-furred lioness. "And do allow me to introduce you to Lisa Carly. Lisa, meet a very old and a quite new friend, missus Buddleia Farr and missus Sasha Farr."
"Nice to meet you," the lioness smiled, shaking Sasha's hand and Buddleia's paw. "Daniel's told me a lot about you two, you've been doing an amazing amount of work the past year, haven't you?" She canted her head while looking at Buddleia. "My goodness, and he was actually right, you are a foxtaur."
Buddleia even forgot to be frightened of the weather.
"I not know you have girlfriend, Dan!"
"And I hadn't quite expected to see you here either, but then again... come to think of it, you sure wouldn't be living at the Co-op, would you?" Sasha said, shaking her head and drawing in a deep breath. "And of course, very nice to meet you, miss Carly." She shook the feline woman's paw and sent Daniel a cheery grin. "You sneaky old feline, where have you been hiding this lovely lady, huh?"
"In Sandleford, that's where she lives," Daniel chuckled, pulling near two chairs and waving at Ralph behind the bar. "Ralph, two cups of tea please, and a refill for the ladies Farr if you please."
"Sandleford... I remember that name from my GPS when I went over to Arfafield," Sasha nodded slowly. "That's one of those community towns out Arfafield way, right?"
"The first slightly larger town, yes," the near-black lioness nodded with a smile. "Travel in the direction of Arfafield from here, you'll first go through Beech Borough and Eastridge, they are small villages just like this one, then you'll reach Sandleford after that."
"Is long way!" Buddleia said, shuffling aside a bit to make room for the two extra chairs. "You drive long way to have tea here, yes!"
"It's a good... oh, thank you," Ms. Carly smiled at Ralph bringing over two cups of tea, a glass of berry juice and a glass of the pale citrus ale. "It's a good seven hours of driving to get here, yes. But of course, I didn't just drive all that way just to have tea with Daniel," she added with a light chortle.
"Yes, I'm very happy to say that Lisa is considering moving to Rolling Hills," Daniel said with a broad smile.
"That's great! I'm happy to hear that, for both of you," Sasha smiled, sipping her juice. "So how did you two meet? It must be about as interesting a tale as how I met Leia, although probably a lot less dramatic, heh."
The near-black lioness stirred a cube of sugar through her tea and let go another light chortle.
"Over the past year, I've suddenly had to have quite a lot of dealings with the local Co-operation here. I'm a sort of in-between solicitor, you see; I'm the link of legality between the farming communities in this valley and the Arfajia Province Council. And all of a sudden, some quite sizeable cases started coming from this area of the valley, concerning the rerouting of some of the roads, an experiment by the University for Forestry and Agriculture in Enfanor, new enterprises being built in this town and the surroundings, a subsidiary branch of a Fossil City factory being built here, the extension of a formerly defunct freight railway line being planned between Campion Crossing and Arfafield, plus two new freight stations planned along that line; and a good number of those came through the local Agricultural Co-operation."
Sasha slapped the tabletop with a hand and then pointed a finger of that same hand at Daniel with a laugh.
"No wonder you were so convinced you could bamboozle the province into improving the main roads around here! You crafty old lion! You have a dear friend in a high place! Hahaha! Oh you're a shrewd one, Dan!"
"You very clever!" Buddleia chirped, turning to look at Ms. Carly. "You keep hold of him good, miss Carly, yes! He good man!"
"I aim to, believe me," Ms. Carly smiled with another light chortle.
"Good for you!" Sasha smiled. "May I ask what made you decide, or at least consider, moving to this tiny little town? Is it to be closer to all those big new projects going on here?"
"A bit, yes," Ms. Carly nodded with a smile, sipping her tea. "Of course, the main reason is to drastically reduce the physical distance between myself and Daniel, but there is in fact a secondary reason. I have received news that a large joint farm is being built not far from here, and that once this farm is in operation, another new enterprise shall be built in this very village. That will bring the amount of registered enterprises up to the minimum required number of enterprises to, in simple terms, evolve to the next settlement level, from a borough or township into actual town status. That in turn will make this village viable for receiving a branch of a bank and a solicitor's office, and I must admit the idea of heading said solicitor's office here very much appeals to me, as it will allow me to live in the same place as Daniel."
"Wow, that's amazing!" Sasha smiled. "It'll be awesome to see this place improving even more, and of course, it's wonderful for you two as well! So congratulations, even if that might be a bit early, haha."
"You may have dismissed the idea, Sasha, but in a way we have you to thank for it," Daniel smiled. "You helping Buddleia to resurrect your farm, your new layout for those roads next to your farm, and taking on that experiment from the university, has caused an increase of productivity and success to come from this little village. And it's well-known that rising success attracts new entrepreneurs, so even if you don't like the thought of having anything to do with it, indirectly it has been partly because of you showing up here and increasing the output of what's been coming from this village."
Sasha emptied her glass of berry juice and made a funny smirk.
"Hmmff... the only reaction I deem worthy to give that is my grampa's famous saying; pishposh and poppycock. I just wanna live my life here with Leia and have fun with her making that little old farm a success, I sure as hell don't want a statue or anything, blegh, heh."
Buddleia giggled in a number of staccato yips.
"Sandy show us Feli make very pretty statue out of bit of new trees! Maybe they bring big tree to Feli and she can make big big statue of you, yes, yee hee!"
"Don't you go giving them any crazy ideas now, you nutso fuzzbutt you! Yeesh!" Sasha laughed, shaking her head.
All of them laughed cheerfully, and Sasha waved over Ralph to get them another round of drinks. For about an hour more, they sat together and talked animatedly. At a question from Sasha, Daniel explained that before she had shown up in the valley, the village of Rolling Hills and the surrounding farms and mills had been a pretty isolated, self-sufficient bubble, with the only outside contacts being a twice-yearly load of flour from the Wildflour mill to the small freight station in Campion Crossing, and a quarterly visit to Arfafield by the timber wolf mechanic Jack from the Co-op, to bring the waste metal from the village and the Co-op to the Arfafield salvage yard to be recycled, plus a twice-yearly delivery of crop seed to the Co-op from Arfafield. So like it or not, her appearance in the valley and her decision to stay there and help Buddleia bring the old little farm back around and back into productivity had in fact been a trigger that had made the tiny village of Rolling Hills a bit more visible on the map. The tall freckled human woman begrudgingly accepted that, but still made it very clear the last thing she wanted to get was a reputation of being some kind of savior to the valley.
A little after nine o'clock, they said their goodbyes. The thunderstorm had completely blown over, and only a light rain was falling, so Buddleia's peace of mind had returned. And it was after all still a very long drive back to the farm, not to mention they'd still have to milk Choco the goat even though it would be close to midnight by the time they'd get home. Fortunately, the refurbishment of old Emmie had given the old Chevrolet a 12-volt electrical system and old-style sealed-beam headlights with modern LED technology, so even without the high-beams on, the headlights pierced the darkness and the light rain easily. And just to be on the safe side, Sasha took the route north-east out of the little village, to avoid having to drive down the main road and possibly giving Buddleia a new case of the heebie-jeebies.
Getting back to the farm a bit after midnight, as Sasha had stood quite firmly on the go-pedal, Buddleia hurried into the old house to put away their groceries, and Sasha quickly milked Choco for the night, not even bothering to filter the milk but just setting the whole bucket in the freezer. Clothes tossed off, they stuck their groceries in the cabinets and the refrigerator just as quickly and snuggled up in the nest-bed for as much sleep as they'd be able to get. The next day was going to be an early morning again, after all.
They were excused for only waking up at 6:10 the following morning. A quick pond bath, drying while eating their breakfast porridge, caring for the animals, collecting eggs and milk, and again, Sasha left the whole bucket of milk in the large double-door refrigerator without bottling it. Time was a bit more of the essence now, as new silage bales had to be made. With the large John Deere batwing mulcher hitched behind the Massey Ferguson tractor, Sasha started a headland and the very elongated intersecting laps across the huge grass field between Waving Grain Road and the narrow, elongated forest behind their farm. Buddleia followed her several yards behind on the open Hanomag tractor pulling the windrower, raking the somewhat more narrow double swaths of grass into thicker, single windrows, agitating the grass just enough to lose the excess moisture from the rain of the previous night.
It took the entire day, even if they did cheat a bit by taking their midday rest period almost an hour later and started work well over half an hour before the end of the rest period. But still well before half past ten that evening, they had all the grass in that field cut and raked into neat windrows. Bright and early the next morning, after the routine of breakfast and tending to the animals, they were back at it, with Buddleia hitching the little baler behind the old Fiat tractor and beginning to bale up all the grass in field 6 while Sasha started pulling the mulcher over field 3. She even worked a good deal into the midday rest period again to finish up all the mowing, because she was nearly done with that field anyway by that time.
After the midday rest, the freckled human woman started following Buddleia through the stretched-out field 6 again, driving the Massey Ferguson tractor with the bale wrapper to wrap all the bales Buddleia was making. Several rows of bales in, her phone started ringing, showing the number and picture of the Dutch Spaniel Marian Witteveen, their neighbor from Cherry Blossom Farm. With a smile, Sasha swiped and tapped her phone to answer the call and set the loudspeaker function.
"Marian, good afternoon! How's things going for you and Margot? Speak up a bit, I'm in the tractor, wrapping bales."
"Ah, okay," Marian's voice sounded from Sasha's phone. "It's going quite well here, Sasha. So good even that we could do with some help, once you have time after your own work, if that's okay."
"Of course! We'll be busy all day today and all day tomorrow at least, but after that all grass that needs to be cut will be in wrapped bales, so we'll have time to hop on over. What do you need help with?"
"Ah yes, of course, you first need to get your own work done, that goes without saying. But, well, you know those cherry trees in that triangle between our driveways? The cherries are ripe, and there's already a ton of birds flocking to those trees to eat the cherries. We find it a shame to just let that happen, because, ah, you mentioned we can sell them in town and also make a bunch of things out of them, so we got a bunch of extra baskets and we've been trying to pick the cherries. But it's very hard to do with ladders and all that. So, ah, you mentioned before that Buddleia could be of good help with harvesting those cherries, so when you have time, would it be okay to ask for your help?"
"By all means, darling! That's no problem at all, we'll be glad to help. But yeah, soonest we can come over is day after tomorrow, once we have finished baling and wrapping our grass, so you'll have to hold out until then. Is there maybe something you could do to protect the trees from birds in the meantime? Like, I dunno, drape nets over them or something, like I've seen them do in the Fennfield orchards?"
There was a sudden squeaky yip of realization on the other end of the line.
"So that's what they were for! Ah, sorry Sasha, but I just remembered, when we went through this house to make it ready for us to move in, we found stacks of huge nets in the attic. We thought that was kinda strange, we had no idea what those would be for, but now it makes sense!"
"Haha! Well, alright, if you still have those nets, then yeah, I would see if you can try draping them over your trees. That should keep most of your cherries safe from those hungry hungry birds for a few days, haha. I would say, how much could those birds even eat, but I have the idea that there's a damn lot of them!"
"You wouldn't believe it! When Margot and I woke up yesterday, we thought there was another storm coming in because of the big black cloud passing by our window, but it turns out it was a huge flock of hundreds and hundreds of birds descending onto our cherry trees!"
"Holy crap! Haha! That's nuts! Yeah, I would definitely try those nets then, darling. And we'll see you the day after tomorrow, let's say... hmmm... let's see, we get up around five, breakfast, bath, animals, doing the milk, driving to your place... Let's say between seven-thirty and eight in the morning? Would that work for you?"
"That'll work great, Sasha. We get up at about six as well, so we should be done with our own morning routines by that time. And thank you so much, I really appreciate it a whole lot."
"Any time, darling, glad to. See you the day after tomorrow then."
"See you then, Sasha, thank you."
The contact was cut, and Sasha tapped out her phone with a smile. On she went, following Buddleia who was almost halfway through the second-last swath of grass, driving up to the small bale of grass in front of her, pulling up so the grabbers of the bale wrapper were on either side of the small bale, activating the wrapper, waiting a minute until the wrapping was done, then releasing the bale and driving up to the next bale in front of her to repeat the whole process over again. Buddleia finished baling the last of the grass while Sasha was still in the middle of the field, and with a cheery wave the purple and white vixen-taur passed the MF tractor to cross Waving Grain Road and pull into the dirt path separating fields 3 and 4 so she could start baling up the swaths of grass in field 3.
The wrapping was so slow, with the constantly having to stop to pick up a bale, wait for it to be wrapped and release it again, Buddleia actually finished baling the grass in field 3 by the time, close to midnight, when Sasha finally finished wrapping the last bale in field 6. For a moment or two, driving the MF tractor over to the open area in front of the large shed, the lanky human woman seriously considered just continuing on with wrapping all the bales on field 3. The idea in itself was rather tempting; field 3 yielded 81 of the small bales, with the stop-and-go rhythm she had to maintain it would take several hours to wrap all those bales, and once finished with that they could go straight into their morning routine, tend to the animals, process all the milk of the past few days, and take their midday rest an hour or two or three earlier to catch up on the sleep they'd have missed.
As a matter of fact, that could work extraordinarily well. A quick check on her phone showed Sasha the temperatures were going to peak the following day at 41C, or almost 106F. Fortunately just for the one day, but it was going to be a sweltering day. Hopping out of the tractor and stepping up to Buddleia who was cleaning the batwing mulcher with the hose, Sasha laid out the idea. Buddleia agreed it would be a good way to get the work done and avoid the ridiculous heat, and suggested she'd work through the night as well to collect as many of the wrapped bales from field 6 as she could.
Thus decided, Sasha got back into the MF tractor, switched on all the work lights and drove over to field 3 while Buddleia finished cleaning the mulcher and the Fiat tractor before walking over to field 6 to start pushing the rows of bales into easy to collect heaps. Sasha took a moment to drive the muted lavender MAZ truck over to field 6 as well and park it somewhere in the middle of the field so Buddleia could put the wrapped bales on the back of it, then quickly got back into the MF tractor to start wrapping all the bales Buddleia had made in field 3.
There was another advantage to working through the night like that. Taking a hydration break somewhere between 4 and 5 in the morning, they sat on the flat deck of the MAZ truck, cuddled up against each other to watch the sunrise. Such an amazing spectacle, the streaks of pink and orange bleeding into the dark indigo blue of the night sky from behind the mountains, fading the stars and lightening the sky into a clearer and clearer blue color, then the burst of gold spilling over the land as the sun appeared over the top of the mountains. It was breathtaking.
Accompanied by the triumphant songs of the birds greeting the new day, Sasha quickly finished baling the last row or two of grass bales in field 3. By the time she had finished, Buddleia had already fed the chickens and the rabbits and Choco the goat, and was busy gathering the eggs from the chicken coop. Sasha parked the MF tractor with bale wrapper in front of the large shed, hosed them down and put them away inside the shed. She went on to pleasure and milk Choco, and now with three full buckets of milk in the underground bunker at her disposal, the freckled human woman took some extra time to make an extra amount of both the small butterfly-shaped cheeses without any additions and the large butterfly-shaped cheeses flavored with ground pink salt and chopped roasted beech nuts, as well as several jars full of butter and a few small wheels of salted ricotta. It was a bit of playing tetris on the shelves to fit all the new cheeses, but she managed.
Snuggled up in the nest-bed of pillows after a quick bath in the pond and their porridge breakfast, by about half past nine in the morning, Buddleia and Sasha cuddled and kissed and softly petted each other until sleep dipped them into content relaxation. And even despite Buddleia's very accurate internal clock, the sleepless night full of work had them sleeping deeply and contently, well into the day, until just after four o'clock in the afternoon. As it could be clearly felt how hot it still was outside, they even took another hour to just lay there together, cuddling and petting each other in blissful laziness until their bodies and minds had fully woken up by themselves.
The rest of the day was spent picking up all the wrapped bales of grass, stacking them under the shelters and marking them. It still took until well into the evening to finish that work, with all the pauses and hydration breaks they had to take in between, but as the darkness started descending once more, all the bales were sitting in neat stacks under the shelters and the old MAZ truck was parked back under the shelter behind the double silo. Buddleia baked a stack of thick pancakes after they had taken a good amount of time to wash the sweat and grime off themselves and just cuddle for a while in the lukewarm water of the pond, and they calmly ate the pancakes while cuddling in the shaded comfort of the garden behind the small farmhouse.
It almost felt unnatural to go to sleep around ten o'clock, after the past couple of late nights and even the sleepless night. Still, despite the extraordinary peak heat of the past day, it was a very comfortable night and sleep soon took them, with the promise of excitement for the following day.
Rising just before 5am. A pond bath, a porridge breakfast while drying up, brushing and cuddling for a while, tending to the animals, gathering eggs and milk and filtering, chilling and bottling the milk. The steadiness of the morning routine, done with a tingle of anticipation. Just to be on the safe side, Buddleia stacked several of the tall, large woven wicker baskets into the small trailer attached to old Emmie's tow hitch, then went into the underground bunker to playfully spur Sasha on to hurry with bottling the milk.
Not ten minutes later, they were on their way to Cherry Blossom Farm in old Emmie, naked save for their sun hats. Only about half an hour later, they arrived at the farm of the Dutch Spaniel mother and daughter, who greeted them just as naked, each only wearing a woven raffia sun hat which had clearly come from the spinnery and weavery in the village.
"Good morning Sasha, Leia!" Marian smiled.
"Good to see ya!" Margot waved.
"You too!" Buddleia chirped.
"Always happy to drop by, darlings," Sasha smiled.
She hugged Marian while Margot hugged Buddleia; then they switched, with Buddleia leaning over to take Marian into a hug and Margot taking Sasha into a firm hug and playfully lifting the lanky human woman off the ground for a moment. After some giggles and chortles, they got down to business, Marian gesturing at the three rows of four cherry trees which looked like they were wearing baggy nylon stockings.
"Thank you for that tip on the nets, Sasha," she smiled. "It turns out those weird big nets we found in the attic indeed were meant for that."
"They were a bitch to put up though," Margot sniggered. "And now we have to pull them right back off again!"
Sasha curled her lips into a mild grin.
"Did they at least help against those birds you mentioned? I still hear a lot of flapping and chirping all over the place."
"Yeah, they're old nets, there's some pretty big tears in several of them," Marian nodded with a smile. "But they did help indeed, so thank you again."
Buddleia shuffled her feral forepaws through the grass around the trees and bent over to pick up a double stalk with a plump and deep red cherry on the end of each stalk.
"They fall already, they good and ripe, yes!" She popped one of the cherries into her mouth, wiggled her bristly whiskers a bit while moving her lips about randomly, then spat out the pit and smiled brightly. "They yum too! Nice and sweet!"
"Good, thank you for taking a sample of these cherries, babe," Sasha chortled. "Well, let's see now, how could we best go about this. Hmmm..." She held a hand over her mouth and lightly tapped her index and middle finger against her cheek while looking up at the trees with the nets draped over them, or down at the triangle of land between the farmyard and the two arms of the driveway, eventually giving a nod of her head and smiling. "Right. I suspect a bunch of cherries are gonna topple out of these trees already when we remove those nets, so we may as well make it as easy for ourselves as we can. We've brought a bunch of baskets, and you said you had gotten extra baskets as well, Marian, right?"
The delicately-built Dutch Spaniel woman nodded with a smile and pointed at a few stacks of similar tall woven wicker baskets sitting near the front door of the farmhouse.
"Right there, we were kinda surprised by how quick we filled up the baskets we had so we made sure to get a good amount extra. Apparently these trees give a lot of cherries, hee."
"Okay, good," Sasha nodded with a smile of her own. "I'm thinking, let's set a circle of baskets around one of the trees, a foot or two away from the trunk and as close up against each other as possible, and then set another ring of baskets right along the outside of that first ring. That way, once we start pulling the net off the tree, the cherries that fall down will land in those baskets. Or that's the hope at least, haha," she added with a chortle.
"That's a good idea, yes," Marian nodded with another smile.
No sooner said than done, they pulled the wicker baskets out of the stacks and started setting them up in a circle around the first tree at the left corner of the triangle. In the second ring, the baskets got spread out a bit more because they didn't have enough baskets to make a full ring, but that wasn't too much of a problem. Once all the baskets were in place, Marian took a few very long, thin, telescoping aluminium rods with a wavy hook on the end from by the shed and carried them over to the row of cherry trees.
"When you said that about the nets and we suddenly understood what the nets we found were for, it also suddenly made a lot of sense what these poles were for," she chortled. "We still had to use ladders, but with these it was a lot easier pulling the nets over the trees."
"Right, that does make sense," Sasha nodded. "I don't know anything about the previous owners of this farm, but I'm guessing since they named the place Cherry Blossom and had all these cherry trees, they were into farming cherries so it would be logical they'd have all kinds of equipment for that." She turned to Buddleia and smiled. "I take it you've known the previous owners of this farm, babe?"
"Yes! Jane and Steve! They so nice folks!" Buddleia nodded brightly, with all her canine teeth and the end of her dark tongue on display. "They grow lots, uh... stalky veggies, yes! Beans and peas and so in big fields behind trees back there, tomatoes, peppers and cucumbers in fields along driveway here. But they also grow lots cherries, yes! They have trees here, but also few rows of trees there," she indicated by fluttering a paw in the direction of the large shed.
"I'm not surprised you knew them quite well," Sasha smiled. "What happened to the orchard they had on that side? I can't remember even having seen remnants of cut-down trees when we looked at that old shed that was there."
"Was big storm, eight or so years ago," Buddleia nodded. "Lots trees blow over, and other trees in rows die from rotting, was much not good, no. They dig out sick and dead trees with much of roots as they can to save rest of the trees, but it not help." She widened her deep golden eyes. "And they work, one tree suddenly break and fall over, right on Steve and he dead! So bad! Jane keep farm for couple years after, but I already know she gonna quit because she not grow stalky crops no more and sell equipment bit by bit, yes."
"Gosh, that's terrible, the poor woman!" Marian said with a paw over her mouth.
"Yes, was bad," Buddleia nodded again. "Jane lose motivation quick. I help her much as I can, but I fall behind a bit with my farm because I work so much time here for Jane. And when she leave, I so far behind with my farm I not able to catch up no more and I lose motivation too, yes."
Both Dutch Spaniel women hugged Buddleia from either side.
"I'm so sorry to hear that, Leia," Marian said softly.
"Yeah, but that's a very noble reason for why ya fell behind with your own farm, helping out someone in such need," Margot nodded.
"Thank, is good," Buddleia said, showing her upper canines in a smile again. "Few years, then I find Sasha, she hurt bad, I make her better and she help me lots and lots and lots, make my farm work again. And she so sweet noodle, she stay with me always, yes! I all happy again!"
Marian, Margot and Sasha all laughed cheerfully at that, and Sasha also took Buddleia into a big hug, pressing a playful smooch on the cool, damp black pad of the vulpine taur's nose.
"You bet your fuzzy butt I'm staying with you always, fuzzbutt. And what say we give some help to the current owners of this farm now?"
"Yes! We help!" Buddleia nodded brightly.
They took the long telescoping poles and extended them to their full length. It was a bit tricky maneuvering the long poles around from the ground, but they did manage to more or less smoothly pull the net off the first tree without damaging it too much. Numbers of ripe cherries toppled down, most of them landing in the baskets and forming a layer on the bottom of most of the baskets. While Marian and Margot took some time to fold up the incredibly large net, Sasha took some of the baskets out of both rings and set them in the vacant spots in the other ring, giving a direct access to the trunk of the tree.
By Buddleia's request, Margot got into the very old brown Volvo Titan truck and parked it as close to the base of the tree as she could, repositioning a few times by Buddleia's directions. Stepping in between the truck and the tree eventually, Buddleia firmly braced herself against the ground with her feral front paws and grabbed a firm hold of the side of the truck's bed with both her paws to brace herself doubly. A grin already started forming around Sasha's lips as she got an idea of what the fluffy vixen-taur was going to do.
Sure enough, with a solid grip on the side of the truck's bed, Buddleia started leaning forwards, slowly pivoting on her feral front paws while lifting her feral rear feet off the ground. Curving the back of her quadruped lower body more and more sharply, the vulpine taur slowly pulled her hind feet up towards her lower tummy, tensing her muscles ever harder as if winding herself up like a spring. All of a sudden, she released, kicking out her hind legs as hard as she could and striking the trunk of the cherry tree with her hind feet with a loud, dull thunk.
The tree shuddered and swayed, all the branches rustling as heaps and heaps of ripe cherries fell down into the baskets and on the ground between and around them. Sasha and the two canine women jumped out of the way, ducking and shielding themselves with their arms as they were suddenly showered with cherries.
"Damn, well, that was effective!" Margot sniggered, shaking her head.
Buddleia set all four of her feral feet back on the ground and let go a deep breath, releasing her grip on the side of the truck's bed and smiling a bright smile that showed all of her canine teeth and a good portion of her dark tongue poking from between them.
"Is how I do for Jane! Yes! Work very good!"
"I'll say!" Margot laughed.
"Yeah, damn, that tree must be empty now," Sasha grinned while giving her head an amused shake.
"That was, ah, impressive," Marian nodded with a chortle.
"I'm guessing we're gonna do that with all these trees?" Margot chuckled.
"Yeah, seeing how successful that sample of this fuzzbutt's technique for harvesting fruits from trees is, I'd say we use the same technique for all these trees here," Sasha nodded with a chortle. "We'll only have to figure something out for picking up the cherries that didn't land in the baskets, I guess."
Marian pointed at the large shed.
"We have tools in there for that, Sasha. We have these, ah, large aluminium shovels, you kinda could call them coal shovels, but nowadays they're mostly used for, ah, scooping up heaps of pulled weeds and such. We can scoop the cherries off the ground without damaging them with those shovels."
"Excellent," Sasha smiled, scratching the back of her head for a moment. "Hm, I suppose we'd better start scooping cherries off the ground last. And come to think of it; we're gonna fill up those baskets pretty damn quick, and then we'll be out of empty baskets before we'll be out of full trees. Do you have something here that you could maybe empty those baskets into, Marian? Or some of them at least?"
The small-ish Spaniel woman let out a short yip of understanding.
"Oh! Hah, of course! That makes sense too now!" She gave her head a quick shake and smiled at Sasha. "When we set up those things you gave us for making cheese in our basement, we noticed that in one corner of the basement, there's a row of like half a dozen old bath tubs. At first we thought maybe the previous owners had kept those as drinking troughs for livestock or something like that, but they're actually set in wooden stands. And if they even had a whole orchard of cherry trees here before, that makes so much sense too now, they must have used those tubs to store the cherries in!"
"Yes!" Buddleia piped up with a chirp. "I remember! Is what Jane do! And she have one metal bath tub with gas burners under to make it hot and cook jam in, yes!"
"That must be the separate one in the other corner that looks like it's plumbed in!" Marian yipped, pointing a finger at Buddleia's nose. "All the other ones are acrylic tubs with the drain holes caulked shut!"
"Yes!" Buddleia chirped again. "Is not water pipe under one tub, is gas pipe! And drain is connected for when Jane wash out tub after making jam, yes!"
"You must take us on a tour through the whole house, from attic to basement, and tell us all about the previous owners sometime," Margot grinned.
"And for now, since it seems like we have everything we need, we'd better get on with getting all those cherries down from the rest of these trees," Sasha added with a light grin as well.
"Yes! We do!" Buddleia nodded so cheerfully the feather dangling from her left ear bobbled back and forth.
Again, no sooner said than done. Now knowing how to proceed, it went a bit quicker as well. Removing the net from the second tree, setting the baskets in two wide rings around the trunk, idling the large truck a bit forwards, and Buddleia again gave a little sample of both her incredible strength and her somewhat unorthodox but very effective ways of getting things accomplished. And Sasha, Marian and Margot stayed well enough away from the tree that was stomped by the fluffy vulpine taur this time to not get showered with heaps of cherries tumbling down.
On to the next tree, and the next, and the next. Every so often, Margot emptied some of the baskets into some of the other baskets so they could carry fully filled baskets into the house and down to the basement, where the baskets were emptied into a row of old, acrylic bath tubs sitting in wooden stands along one of the basement walls. With Buddleia's quite unusual but definitely highly effective manner of getting the cherries out of the trees, the work went surprisingly quickly. By ten o'clock each of the dozen cherry trees had been stomped clean of cherries, shortly before eleven o'clock all the cherries that hadn't made it into the baskets had been scooped from the ground with large aluminium shovels with high sides and put into the baskets, then transferred into the old bath tubs in the basement of the farmhouse. Whatever small amount of cherries they missed on the ground, they just left there for the birds and feral rabbits and squirrels and mice.
Surprisingly, all the action around the three short rows of cherry trees had not even disturbed the colonies of bees in the bee boxes that were sitting between the trees in the middle of the triangle of land. Perhaps Buddleia's unorthodox manners had additional benefits for the environment of whatever she was harvesting as well.
Eleven o'clock was the starting time of the midday rest period. With all the nets folded and stored in the large shed along with the telescoping poles, all the baskets emptied and stacked in either the basement or the small trailer behind old Emmie, and the large old Volvo truck parked back in its spot next to the large shed, all four of them went into the farmhouse. Marian filled a large bowl with cherries, washed them and set the bowl on the coffee table for them to snack on while Margot filled four glasses with orange juice and ice cubes made out of the same orange juice and handed one to everyone.
Comfortably relaxing, they didn't even sit on the sofa or in the armchairs, but Sasha and the two Dutch Spaniel women snuggled up against Buddleia as the purple and white vixen-taur lay herself down on the chest and tummy, and somewhat on the side, of her quadruped lower body on the thick rug the coffee table was sitting on. Margot leaned up against the tummy and chest of Buddleia's upper torso and cuddled into the embrace of the vulpine taur's arms she was taken into; Sasha and Marian snuggled against the soft fluffy chest and tummy of Buddleia's quadruped lower body with Marian also cuddling into the embrace Sasha took her into.
Sipping their juice and snacking on the fresh cherries, the atmosphere was a bit gigglish as the four of them almost made a contest out of spitting out the pits of the cherries and trying to make them land in an empty bowl sitting on the far end of the coffee table. Most of them made it, too. Only when the bowl of cherries was almost empty did they relax a bit more and the giggles died down.
Of course, holding a positively adorable, delicately built naked Spaniel woman with amazingly soft, floppy, long dangling ears in an embrace, it wasn't too long before Sasha couldn't help herself anymore. With a playful grin, she lifted Marian's floppy left ear up to her face and nuzzled against the long-furred outside of it.
"Those cherries were delicious, but I much rather sample this delectable treat," she sniggered lightly, leaning down her head a bit and beginning to lightly nibble along the rim of Marian's ear, from the base to the rounded tip, then laying short little licks against the soft bare skin on the inside back towards the base.
Marian crooned and shivered delightedly, sinking down against Sasha's side and closing her eyes.
"Ooooo... Hahh... Mmmnn..." Pulling in several slow, deep breaths, the Dutch Spaniel woman melted into the ministrations for several long moments, slowly rolling her head a bit and half-opening her eyes eventually to look up at Sasha's face. "You're... ah... such a... naughty girl, Sasha... Seducing older women... ah... who could have been your mother... like that... mmmnn..."
Sasha's lips curled into a playful grin around the rim of Marian's ear.
"And so what?" she murmured while giving more light nibbles to the rim of the floppy ear. "I could have been Millie's mother, hell, Leia and I actually are Millie's mothers now, and that's sure never stopped neither her nor us before." Her grin grew a bit wider. "And it never stopped your daughter either. Besides, you really can't blame me, because you fluffy fuzzy-wuzzy folk have such a huge advantage over us bare-skinned human folk."
"Nyeeeeee-ehh... mmmhh... And what... ah... would that be..?" Marian crooned, closing her eyes again.
"You people age so much more gracefully," Sasha chortled around the rim of Marian's ear. "I mean, sure, the ones with fur in dark colors may show a bit of graying around their muzzle and eyebrows and ears when they get on in years, but the ones with light colors of fur, it's almost impossible to tell what age they are. We humans turn gray or even lose our hair and we get all wrinkly and saggy, but you fuzzy folk retain the very same look of beauty for so, so much longer." She took the rounded end of Marian's ear into her mouth and gave a light, playful suckle, drawing a delighted shudder from the small-ish canine woman. "It's kinda not fair, I'm so jealous of you fuzzy folk... And with the difference in size between you and me, you could just as well be my daughter instead since there's no clearly visual difference in age between us."
"Nnnyeeeee-hahh... I suppose... ah... there's some logic to that..." Marian crooned happily.
Margot grinned cheerfully as well from inside Buddleia's embrace and lifted a leg, draping it over Marian's lap so she could poke Sasha's leg with her toes.
"So if my mom is your daughter, can I call you grandma then?" she teased.
Buddleia yipped a giggle, and Sasha turned her head a bit to grin at Margot with the end of Marian's ear still between her lips.
"You're lucky you're as adorable as your mother, but don't push that luck, missy," she sniggered.
They all chortled and giggled again, and Buddleia displayed all of her teeth and the end of her tongue in a cheery grin.
"I not really know what Sasha find so yum about ears, so I better try too and see! Nahmf!"
Leaning down her head, the purple and white vixen-taur opened her mouth and took almost half of Margot's left ear into her maw. More chortles and giggles rose up, and gradually yet more relaxation sank down over the four of them as they snuggled even closer together.
It was going to be a mighty comfortable rest period. Well deserved after such a successful cherry harvest!
