Even though he’d used it only a few times, Mr. Anderson quickly mastered the A300 and the other two pieces of equipment. Nan had picked up the nuances quickly, as well. It was early afternoon when they called it quits and drove the equipment back to the house.
“You did good, boy,” Mr. Anderson told Calvin as the parked the equipment. “You too, missy. We got more work done today… good work… than I could have done with my equipment in a week. You made a good choice.”
“Thank you, Mr. Anderson,” replied Calvin. “I appreciate your help on this. Why don’t you call your wife and tell her that Nan and I are taking the two of you out for dinner in town.”
“Well, that would be nice. Diner has fried catfish and hushpuppies as the special tonight. It’s always pretty good, considering how far we are from a good catfish river.”
“That sounds just fine to us,” Nan replied. “We’ll meet you there, say about five?”
“That’ll be good. Yep. You did good, boy.”
With a wave Mr. Anderson climbed into his beat up old Dodge and headed back to town.
Nan put her arms around Calvin’s neck and leaned in against him. “Going pretty good, I’d say,” she said. “Wouldn’t you agree?”
“I certainly would. I knew intellectually how well things should work, but the last couple of weeks have been an eye opener. There is a huge amount of work available for the equipment. Things that Mr. Anderson never bothered to do since he didn’t have a good way to do them. There is going to be plenty of work to keep us busy, especially with the woodlot thinning business.”
“Why don’t you put in for shorter hours now? I know we weren’t going to do that ‘til next spring, but with what we’ve seen, I think it will be okay.”
Calvin kissed her, his hands on her hips, before he replied. “I think you’re right. And I want to help Mr. Anderson. His health is a lot worse than I realized.”
This time Nan kissed Calvin. “Good. That’s settled. Let’s get cleaned up and get ready to go into town.”
CHAPTER ELEVEN
Buddy was surprised when Charlene called him early Saturday morning. “I don’t have anything planned today, Buddy. I was wondering if you wanted some company when you go up to see the property.”
“I hadn’t thought about it. But sure, if you want to. I don’t mind. I’ll pick you up in a little while.”
Charlene smiled when she hung up the phone. Her part time clerk had been willing to work one Saturday. The emphasis on one. It took her only a few minutes to dress in jeans and a flannel shirt and her walking shoes. She grabbed a light jacket and hurried out when Buddy honked his horn.
She had no trouble clambering up into the truck on the passenger side. As she belted herself in Buddy said, “Have to stop at the barbershop to get the directions. I got a map from the realtor, but she wasn’t much help otherwise. I don’t think she cares if it is sold or not.”
“Who is the realtor?” Charlene asked.
When Buddy told her she frowned. “That’s who I bought my house through. They weren’t very good, in my opinion.”
“I sure wouldn’t use them,” Buddy said. When they pulled up in front of the barbershop Buddy parked the truck and said, “It’ll just be a minute. I’ll be right back.” He hopped out of the truck and went into the barbershop.
It took three minutes rather than one, but Charlene didn’t mind. Buddy had a sheaf of papers in his hand when he re-entered the truck. He handed the papers to Charlene to look through as he headed out of town.
“Thirty-seven point three acres,” Charlene said. “That’s a pretty large piece of property. “You really want something that big?”
“If it’s mostly wooded, yeah, I think so. It is going to depend on exactly what the land is like. I know basically what I want. I’ll just have to see what the property looks like and if I can do what I want with it.”
They rode in silence for a while, Charlene reading the next set of directions when Buddy asked. They left the city on the state road, then another, then onto a paved county road. They had been climbing slowly as they went. When they turned onto the graveled county road the climb became steeper for the most part, though there were ups and downs.
“That must be it,” Charlene said, pointing to a rather substantial gate in the fence that paralleled the road on their left. The gate was set back somewhat from the road to allow room to pull in and stop to get out and open the gate. Charlene handed Buddy the key that had been in an envelope that was part of the packet.
He came back to the truck without opening the gate. When Charlene rolled down the window Buddy told her, “Locks rusted solid. Bobby thought it might be. It’s a cheap lock. He said to cut it and just bolt it back up. The land owner will need to put another on.”
“This isn’t where Bobby’s land starts?”
“Oh, no. Look at that next page of directions.” Buddy went to the tool box in the back of the truck and took out a pair of bolt cutters.
When he passed the window on his way back to the gate Charlene told him, “I see what you mean. We still have a ways to go.”
Buddy nodded, and then went to cut the lock. When he had the gate open he looked back and motioned to Charlene. She quickly moved over to the driver’s seat and drove the truck through the gate opening. She changed back to the passenger seat as Buddy closed the gate and wrapped the chain around the post, fastening a long bolt through the end links and tightening it finger tight.
It was only a few moments more and Buddy had put the bolt cutters away and was back behind the wheel of the truck. “Okay,” he said, “Let me take a look at that last page of directions again.”
Buddy studied the handwritten directions, looking up occasionally at the heavily wooded hills before them. “Okay,” he said, “I see the first landmark.” He pointed to a dead tree leaning against another still growing tree. “We jog north just past that dead tree. When we get there, remind me again what the next landmark is.” He handed the directions back to Charlene.
There was a hint of a pair of tracks leading to that first landmark, but by the third landmark they had faded to nothing. Even with Charlene acting as navigator and helping watch for the landmarks, they had to backtrack twice before they got to the Bobby’s property line. Some of the way had been over grassy terrain, but much of it was bare earth with outcroppings of rocks. The truck had no difficulty with the terrain.
Bobby had insisted on a survey when he bought the property and one of the benchmarks was obvious when they got there. Buddy found a decent place to park and stopped the truck. The two got out and looked around. There wasn’t that much to see. They had come through a stand of trees, the path just wide enough for Buddy to navigate. All they could see was the small open area and the trees around it.
With yet another sheet of paper in hand, this one the plot of the property, Buddy pointed toward what might be another open area in the trees ahead and started in that direction, up a slight grade. Charlene quickly moved up to his side, zipping her jacket as she went. It was cool in the forest.
When they stepped into that next clearing both stopped. The clearing was large and nearly flat. They had to scramble up several feet to get on the meadow proper. Though there was a thin layer of soil that supported grass, it was obvious trees couldn’t grow. There were outcroppings of rock all over.
Though the site was relatively flat, as they journeyed across, it was quickly obvious they were on a slope. When they reached the tree line of the other side of the meadow both turned around. “Oh, my!” Charlene exclaimed softly.
“Yeah,” agreed Buddy. Almost due south of where they stood, past the drop off, the land fell away quickly. The tree tops were below their line of sight, exposing the vista of the distant river and the city built on both sides of it. A couple of distant small towns were discernable, as was a long stretch of the interstate.