Macintyre Farm

Five

SEBASTIAN POV

"Cheers, man," I grinned, clinking beer bottles with Taylor and Austin around a huge bonfire.

I had been at the Macintyre farm for about a month now. We finished the harvest strong and had more tomatoes than expected.  Walt was able to sell some of the extra to local farms but Andy kept busy canning as well as making sun dried tomatoes.

They have companies that purchase oats and corn but part of the yield goes to neighbors so they can use it for feed.  Made sense and was a smart way to do business, especially since some of the farms had a bit of a barter system.  Austin mentioned they stay stocked with beef, chicken, and apples all year thanks to those agreements.

Tonight for dinner we had the pizza Taylor raved about back when I started. Fresh goat cheese, sun dried tomato, home grown basil, and homemade crust.

He was right. It was the best pizza I had ever eaten.

Andy was amazing in the kitchen as well as with the animals.  She worked hard and kept to herself but I paid attention to the amount of effort she put into every single thing she did.  The girl was always able to set aside her feelings so she could focus where it was needed.

I would not be able to show that kind of strength.

The 3 new horses arrived after I had been here a couple days. It was a chaotic process since 1 was completely untrained even though he was 10.  He was accompanied by a pair of Appaloosa foals that were not even a month old so I got the chance to care for new baby horses that were as sweet as they were mischievous.

One of the cats also had kittens the day before but died during childbirth. Andy was clearly upset but made a formula using corn syrup, goats milk, and other ingredients then bottle fed the 4 new little babies every couple of hours.  Taylor explained to me later that Callie was a kitten Andy raised, so helping her with labor before she died was a tough process. It showed me that she had a heart, though I was still not sure whether she was a spoiled brat.

It came across like she was naïve and got to run things. Andy kept control over their household in a way that was almost militant, though I could give her credit for the amount of plates she kept spinning both literally and figuratively.  Maybe it was part of her process, maybe it was an indicator that her desire was power.  I did not know her well enough to decide.

A few of the area 20 somethings showed up to join us, including twins named Autumn and Spring Harris. I could feel the shift in Andy's attitude as soon as they arrived. The girls were pretty blondes about her age so it seemed like there was a history at play.  Both were shorter but tan with trendy clothes and an obvious desire for male attention.

Not like I could blame them.  Aside from Andy, I had barely met any women my age.  Even trips into town on my days off were usually the chance to grab something at the diner or pick up a few things at the store.  I thought about seeing a movie last week but decided to just finish up then watch something on Netflix at the bunk house.  Gramps ended up joining me which was a great time.

Austin introduced me around and was chummy with Autumn Harris so I chatted with Spring as more guests joined us.  Everyone was nice and it was a relaxing night, drinking beer and roasting marshmallows while we enjoyed the satisfying feeling of a job well done.  Looking out at the fields to see everything plowed was something I did not anticipate feeling so much pride from.

"So you've been here about a month, right?" Spring asked, twirling a lock of her hair as she leaned her body into mine.

I nodded, "Yeah, got here right before we adopted 3 new horses so it's been a wild time."