Percy's Mission (3 page)

Mattie didn’t and she wasn’t going to let Percy get away with the teasing. “Oh, no one really special. But I was thinking, since you brought it up, about talking to Sara McLain to see if she needs a safe place… just in case, you know.”
Again Susie giggled, due to Percy’s sudden look of panic and very red face. “I… uh… don’t think that would be such a good idea…”
“True,” Mattie said, quite matter-of-factly. “Probably should come from you. You being master of the estate and all.” She grinned.
“You just make sure you don’t annoy her in some way.”
Mattie continued to grin. “Of course not, Mr. Jackson. I would never do that.”
“Just see that you don’t,” Percy said, rather gruffly. “I don’t need any help with… anything.”
Both women were chuckling when Percy headed out the door.
“Are you okay, Boss?” Susie asked when Percy came in a little after noon. “You look a little funny.”
Percy did look a bit dazed, Mattie decided.
“Yeah. Yeah. I’m fine. It’s just… Well, they asked me to put together some more comprehensive recommendations for the Agency with some other people. They want it within two months. Shouldn’t take us that long.”
The two women saw a bit of red come to Percy’s cheeks.
“And… well… Sara’s office was closed because of the rolling blackout so she came to the meeting, too. She volunteered to be on the committee.”
“Won’t that be a conflict of interest since she’s Equalization Agent for this district?” asked Susie.
“Not since she is an official state member of the committee. There are a couple more state employees.” Percy sighed then. “A couple more local citizens. Jeb Canada and Abigail Landro.”

“Ooh,” responded Mattie.
Susie looked at her mother. “What?”
“Jeb’s the one that tried to foreclose on the farm right after Mr. and Mrs. Jackson died. And Abigail… just sort of… doesn’t like Mr. Jackson.”
“That’s enough, Mattie. That’s all in the past. We’re all just citizens, trying to do what’s best for the majority without hurting anyone. Now, I need to change and check the fields. It’s shaping up to rain.”
“Don’t you want some lunch?” Mattie asked, not bothered in the least by Percy’s minor admonishment.
“Sara and I grabbed a burger after the meeting.”
When Mattie and Susie grinned at him, he harrumphed and left the kitchen.
Rain it did, but no snow. Springtime storms, but a notch or two more extreme than what used to be considered normal. Percy was glad he had gone ahead and prepped the fields. Even with the severity of the weather at the moment, the rain was good. There was some runoff into the collection canal that ran along three sides of the property, with each field being graded to drainage ditches that emptied into the canal. There wasn’t much water in the irrigation holding pond the canal fed. The fields had soaked up the rain like sponges. It had been a very dry winter.
The severity of the drought had been worse the last few years, interspersed with some of these downpours. Percy didn’t waste water. That was the reason for the canal around the property. To capture excess rainwater and hold it in a pond. The irrigation wells were only to supplement rain during the driest times.
Of course, the canal served another purpose, which Percy didn’t talk about much. With the pipe fence around three sides of the estate that had blackberry brambles growing along it, just inside the canal, and the thick stand of trees that also bordered the estate inside the brambles, getting onto Percy’s property was very difficult. A gated drive on each of the sides and back of the estate cut the triple barrier.
The front of the estate, along the highway, also had a fence, but it was an earth berm, faced with a concrete block and brick wall. Two sets of gates served the expansive circle driveway and parking area. The road ditch substituted for the canal around the other three sides of the estate. The front also had a stand of trees, though no blackberries. Instead, the berm was terraced and planted with strawberries, another cash crop for Percy.
Each of the front entries had heavy rolling gates that closed the driveway. They were on automatic openers, but Percy kept them open most of the time anyway. It would take a concerted effort to enter the property by destroying a gate. To get through the barriers would take heavy equipment, such as a bulldozer, and quite a bit of time. And all it looked like was good farm management. The trees were windbreaks and source of firewood. The blackberries were a major cash crop. The canal conserved a precious resource. Water.
Percy smiled as he surveyed the pond. If they got much additional rain the next few weeks, the pond would be well on the way to being full. He checked the well and pump at the edge of the pond. If need be, he could fill the pond, and the entire canal, with extra water for irrigation if they had another drought year, as they’d had the year before.
By the time Percy had checked everything, spent some time with the horses and dogs, it was evening. He paid everyone, in cash, and let them off early. Two days after the rain stopped they’d start planting.
The Hansen twins made it home on Sunday, the same day the rain stopped. Percy trained them on the new equipment Monday and Tuesday, waiting for the fields to be right for planting. Percy had the first committee meeting Tuesday evening, in a meeting room in the civic center, in town. It did not go well. Even Sara was a bit aghast at the scope of things Percy had in mind.
She supported the idea, but being a state employee, was very budget conscious. A couple of the others simply wanted some pamphlets printed. It was going to take the full two months to work something out among the group, after all, Percy decided.
“You… uh… want to get some dinner?” Percy asked Sara as they gathered up the papers that Percy had worked so hard on preparing for the committee. He put them in his briefcase, closed it, and snapped the latches.
“I can’t, Percy,” Sara said, watching his face closely. “Jeb needs an appraisal on some property tomorrow. I need to get back to the city and get some sleep. Having dinner will put me too late.”
A tiny inner smile formed when Sara saw the quick frown cross Percy’s face. It was quickly gone, the usual bland look back, as Percy said, “I understand.” There was a moment’s hesitation before Percy spoke again.
“I know this is quite a jaunt for you. We will have some of the meetings in the city, instead here in town, you know. It’s a shame you need to drive back, especially since you have to come back out tomorrow.”
“Well, tomorrow is on the state, of course.”
“Isn’t this?” Percy asked.
“Committee work like this isn’t on the expense account. I use my own car and have to pay for my own meals and things. That’s the reason I’m not staying at the motel tonight. I can’t spare the money.”
The words were out of his mouth before he thought about it. “You should come out and stay at the house tonight. That way you’d only have to make the one drive back and you could get an early start, finish up with Canada quickly, and get back to the city early tomorrow. Mattie’s making pot roast tonight.” He suddenly looked chagrinned at what he’d suggested. “I mean… you know… but if you need to go back…”
Sara cut him off, quickly. “Why thank you, Percy. That’s sweet of you. I’ll be able to expense the trip back, since I’m working here tomorrow. That will save me half my fuel expense for this meeting.”
“Oh. Uh… Thanks. No problem. I’d… uh… better call Mattie and have her get a guest room and bath ready.”
“It’ll be nice to see Mattie again. It’s been a long time since we’ve talked. How is Susie?”
“Fine,” replied Percy as they headed for the front doors of the small civic center the town boasted. “She is marvelous with the animals. She keeps insisting her ambition is to be a vet assistant, but I think she’ll go ahead and go to vet school and get her license. I hate to lose her, either way, but with her natural talent and intelligence, she’d make a fine vet.
“I doubt she’d stay here. The Doc is well established and I don’t think the area could support two large animal vets. Susie wouldn’t be satisfied with just cats, dogs, and birds. Plus, I think she’s getting the urge to get married. She’s… uh… never mind.”
Sara just smiled. Percy didn’t like conversations about marriage. She didn’t either, for that matter. At least she hadn’t. That was changing a bit now. Her first marriage had not gone well, but that didn’t mean all marriages were bad. Not when you had the right partner. When she took Percy’s arm as they left the building he didn’t pull away or comment.
Percy handed Sara into her car after opening the door and then shut it after saying, “Just follow me out. They’re working on a couple of intersections on the way out. Be careful of the construction zones.”
“I will, Percy. I will.” Sara wasn’t going to let anything interfere with this opportunity.
He used his cell phone to let Mattie know they were having a guest. He heard Mattie chuckle as she was in the process of hanging up the phone. “Lord,” Percy said, looking up at the roof of the cab of the truck, “don’t let Mattie get started on middle age marriages. She doesn’t have any room to talk, anyway.”
Mattie was the soul of discretion. Not one word was uttered about marriage of any kind during the meal. In fact, Mattie made herself scarce as soon as she served the meal. “Just leave the dishes. I’ll do them tomorrow. I… uh… need to do something at home. With Susie. Dessert’s in the freezer.”
“But…” That was all Percy had a chance to say. Mattie was out the door.
Sara smiled over at Percy and patted his hand where it lay on the table. “Don’t worry, Percy. You’re safe. I’m not the pushy type. You know that.”
“Yeah,” Percy said, visibly relaxing. “That’s true. You’re the nicest woman I know about stuff like that. About everything, actually.”
Percy was putting his napkin on his lap and didn’t see the huge grin that split Sara’s face. It was down to a smile when he looked up and over at her. “I could tell you were not comfortable with some of my ideas at the meeting, but you expressed your doubts in a very non-confrontational way.”
“Unlike Jeb and Abigail,” commented Sara, as she started to eat.
“They are just expressing their opinions, just like I was, I know. And I’m willing to discuss everything. I’m not trying to push my ideas on anyone. I just want to help.”
“I know, Percy. I know. Don’t worry. The committee will come to some type of decision. It’s just going to take some conversation and negotiation.”
“I’m not too good of a negotiator,” protested Percy.
“Don’t give me that,” Sara said. “You are a consummate negotiator. You have ten percent of the local population bartering, Percy, simply because you are so successful at it. You make good deals that benefit you and the other party as well. That’s what negotiation is all about. Both parties getting what they want.”

“But everyone basically wants much more than they wind up getting.”
“Perhaps, but they are very satisfied with what they get or they wouldn’t agree to the barter. Now hush and eat your roast. I want to watch the news. My cousin Cliff is going to Germany next week. He’s in an artillery battery. I want to see what the situation is over there now. I keep hearing some bad things are going on in Europe.”
“Don’t worry. I’m sure he’ll be fine. The German situation… well, it’s not good, but I doubt anything will happen any time soon.”
“I hope so. I’m very worried about what’s going on in the world. More so the effects of global warming and the weather. That’s why I wanted on the committee. People need to realize the possible dangers.
This time it was Percy who patted Sara’s hand. She took the opportunity to move it and grasp his for a quick squeeze. “Thanks, Percy. You always make me feel better about these things.”
Percy didn’t hesitate. “You know, if things were to get bad, you will always have a place here on the estate. We’re fairly well prepared for most situations that are likely to occur.” Realizing what he was saying, Percy quickly added. “There’s always the third cottage. It’s not being used at the moment.”
It was good enough for Sara, even with the slight back pedaling Percy had done. “Why, thank you, Percy. That means a lot to me. I will definitely keep it in mind.” Sara wasn’t particularly worried about needing to be here because of the situations Percy was referring to, but it was a start to having a place here for other reasons.
The news wasn’t particularly good when they watched first one, then another of the news channels. German politics were drifting more to the right. They were becoming much more nationalistic and showing much less enthusiasm for the European Union. France was being even more obtuse than usual about everything.
Sara stopped Percy as they left the study and gave him a quick buss on the cheek after she thanked him for letting her stay the night instead of going all the way back into the city, then coming back the next day.
When she’d gone into the bedroom, Percy sighed and went back into the den. He’d put on a good front, but he was worried about the world situation, both politically and weather wise. There’d been a short report on a new study of the salinity of the North Atlantic. Percy knew the dangers that posed. If the North Atlantic became fresher, the heavier saline waters of the Gulf Stream would sink and Europe and much of North America would lose the benefits of the warm waters it provided.
Percy was a bit distracted the next morning. Sara and Mattie exchanged a quick look when Percy bid them good morning and headed out the door. He made a point to fill Sara’s fuel tank with gasoline. She was down to a third of a tank in the Honda hybrid she drove. She would have needed to fuel up in town before she went back to the city. Fuel was nearly seventy cents higher in town than it was in the city. It wasn’t much, but he was saving her at least ten dollars. On her salary, every dollar counted.
When he’d finished with refueling Sara’s car, he walked back to the estate’s tank farm. It was time to pump methane from the number two methane generator to the storage tank. When the transfer was finished, Percy drained the liquid from the generator and added it to the honey wagon, then transferred the solid waste to the compost pile. He was well into the process when he saw the hands head to the fields, ready to start planting. Percy knew the process was in good hands and turned back to his work.
He was transferring the depleted mash from number one alcohol still to a stock feed holding tank when Susie stopped by to tell him she was going over to Doc’s to help with a foaling.
“Okay, Susie. Let Doc know two of the cows are coming into estrus soon. We’ll need his bull’s services in a few days.”
“Okay. I’ll see if he has any semen ready or will need to get a fresh batch.”
“Good. Good luck with the foaling. I know that mare. She’s a problem.”
“That’s what Doc said. It’ll be good experience for me.”
Percy added the accumulation of animal waste from the barn to the methane generator and lowered the cover into place. It was ready to start generating methane gas again. He checked the number one generator. It was operating nicely. The cover dome was about halfway up. It’d be a few more days before he needed to transfer the methane from it and reload it with fresh material.
He refilled number one still with fresh mash and started it. Like the methane operation, Percy checked the second still. It was producing well and the second stage supplied by the two primary stills was running just fine as well. The thousand-gallon double distilled alcohol storage tank was nearly full. The methane tank, also of a thousand gallon capacity was about half. With the increased waste production from newborn animals, it would be full by mid spring and the compost pit would be full, too.
It was time to make another pickup run to gather the manure and liquid wastes from the dozen farms with which Percy had arrangements. Percy took the accumulated waste from the farms for it, so the farms wouldn’t have to deal with it. His only expense was transportation, and he had the equipment, anyway, including trailers to haul the waste. He already had most of the trailers he would be pulling behind the Unimogs from time to time. He’d only bought two new trailers for use with the Unimogs when he bought them.
Both were multi-purpose trailers he designed himself and had a trailer repair shop custom build for him. The trailers he used with the group of trucks he’d had before he bought the Unimogs were numerous. The list included two honey wagons, two manure spreaders, a fifth wheel horse trailer and a fifth wheel stock trailer, fifth wheel tilt bed equipment trailer, one fifth wheel and two pull behind box trailers, a stake bed trailer, and four roadside stand trailers he used to sell some of the produce he raised to tourists.
Most of his products went to local merchants and commercial enterprises, but he still liked to sell from the roadside. He’d done that when he first took over the farm. It had been good for him, and lucrative. He kept all proceeds. There was no middleman between him and the consumer. Many of the locals bought directly from the roadside stands despite the fact that he supplied both the local grocery stores in town and an organically grown produce specialty store in the city, as well as the local co-op.
Percy smiled as he thought of Organically Grown Only, the store in the city, as he hooked up one of the honey wagons to a Unimog. People paid twenty percent more in that store than what the local markets charged, even though everything he produced he produced without chemically produced fertilizers or chemical pesticides or herbicides. His fertilizers, pesticides, and herbicides were all produced naturally right on the estate, or were mechanical in nature.
By Sunday Percy had retrieved all the animal and vegetable waste from the other farms. The early crops were planted. Everyone took the day off except Percy. The animals had to have attention every day, no matter what. The milking and egging done, Percy spent some time with each of his animals. Except the barn cats. He was seriously allergic to them. They didn’t like him anyway. He was a dog person.
He thought they were pampered a bit too much by Susie. He hadn’t seen any sign of rats or mice, but still… feeding barn cats went against his grain. Percy smiled. He knew he was just prejudiced against cats due to his allergy. That hadn’t stopped him from suffering for three days to help nurse one of them through a difficult birth one time.
Percy was careful to step around one of the kittens that was following him around. The kitten made itself scarce when he got to the hog pen in the barn. Betty Joe, his best brood sow came up to the fence and nuzzled him through the bars for a scratch behind the ears.
“You’re a pest,” he said softly to the animal, then gave each one of the sows the same treatment when they sidled over to see what was going on. Clyde, the boar, just grunted and lay where he was. He’d just made a new wallow in the deep dirt that covered the floor of the inside pen. Clyde was comfortable where he was. Besides, the human would be over shortly to scratch him anyway.
Percy went through the gate, careful not to make any of the piglets squeal. Despite their chummy appearance, it didn’t pay to be around a sow if one of her piglets wasn’t happy. “You lazy pig,” Percy said, squatting down to rub the boar’s forehead, then scratched him behind the ears, too.
With a slap on the flank that brought a grunt from Clyde, Percy stood and headed for the outside gate for the hog pen. He opened the inner and outer doors and most of the sows and all of the piglets headed outside. The sows led the way through the fenced path and turned into the pasture in use at the moment. Clyde considered it, then climbed to his feet and lumbered out. A little sunshine would be good, especially in the wallow by the fence next to the gate. He’d just got it the way he liked it. They’d changed pastures a few days before and he couldn’t get to the wallow in that one.
Percy turned out the cattle, milk cows, and then the horses. The horses wanted to play in the bright morning sunshine and Percy indulged them, letting them stampede up to him, stop and nudge him softly with their noses before they turned and ran some more.
One of the saddle mares, Herman’s Best, tried playing with a piglet the same way, but the piglet squealed in alarm and the mother sow came charging over. Herman’s Best sidled away gracefully, and then put her head down. The sow, placid now, ambled over and the two touched noses for a moment. Both snorted and went off to do their own thing. Percy shook his head and headed for the kennel.
Lion, Rip, and Queenie were lying near the outside gate, knowing someone would be by soon to let out the pups. The dogs rubbed up against Percy’s legs, in no hurry to have the pups taking Percy’s attention away from them. Percy spent quite a bit of time with each of the adult dogs, individually, before he let the pups out of their kennel runs to do the same with them.
He got out one of the Rokon bikes and took the dogs for a run toward the front gates, turning along the tree line when he reached it. When the young pups began to get tired, he slowed and finished the journey around the four mile perimeter of the estate at a slow pace. Percy gave each of the dogs a treat. The pups took theirs and lay down to enjoy them. Rip went to find a good place to bury his for a while, going to open ground in the kennel runs to do so, having learned as a pup himself not to dig up the grounds except in designated areas.
Queenie and Lion began to chew theirs, but stayed with Percy as he put away the bike. When he told them he was going back to the house the two dogs went to join the pups to enjoy the rest of their chew treats. As he headed for the bee barn, Percy saw Rip out cavorting with the horses in the pasture. The horses seemed to be enjoying it as much as the Airedale.
In the facility they all referred to as the bee barn, Percy checked the status of the hives. Everything was in order. He pulled two supers and cut the combs free. It took him only a few moments to get them boxed and ready to take to market. He added them to the case of other comb honey boxes.
He got one of the Unimogs, attached a box trailer and loaded up the case of honey. He moved the trailer over by the green houses and loaded the boxes of produce that had been gathered and prepared for shipment the day before. The twins were working on their jeep. Percy let them know he was headed into town, then the city with a load. He had the produce delivered to both the stores in town in plenty of time for the after church crowd to be able to pick up fresh items for Sunday dinner.
It was a bit after four when Percy finished unloading at Organically Grown Only. He made a couple of stops to do a little shopping and then headed back to the estate. He was pleased with the performance of the Unimog with the trailer.