34
Well, why don’t you come for supper and we’ll
discuss it. I’ll go over some of our problems.
Mebbe you can help. . . Goat cheese and roasted
pumpkin suit you?
______________________________
The goat-herder has fashioned a shelter for himself near the goat
shelters at the top of the hill. Various weathered boards, showing
signs of various paint colors in past lives, are nailed to form a lean-
to. The ends are open for ventilation, covered by cloth that can be
dropped down in cold weather, and the boards of the lean-to can be
lifted for light also. He cooks over a wood-burning stove placed under
a tarp, so rain is kept from the cooking area. A stovepipe carries the
smoke up above the tarp.
There are several bedraggled suburbanites sitting on a tree trunk,
waiting for supper. Their feet are covered with dust, as they have been
working a field all day. Though they look exhausted, they look
contented. Children are among them. Joey goes down the line, showing
the picture of his parents.
This was when they were a few years younger . .
Joey is not getting any response, and looks discouraged by the end of
the line.
The goat-herder has fashioned a table out of a board supported by
stools and boxes, and has chopped a couple pumpkins into sections.
These he slides into the wood stove oven, in a covered baking pan.
After brushing the table top clear, he brings out some goat cheese
wrapped in cloth from a cooler placed into a nitch in the rocks. He
slices this up and puts it on a plate, passing it down the line. Some
of the suburbanites hand the platter to Joey and Finegan, including
them as guests in the feeding line. The goat-herder explains.
What we got here is a two-step operation. Goats
will eat pretty much anything. . . Seems one of
these women (waving to the lineup) saved a lot
of pumpkinseed. Halloween, ya know. . . She saw
this coming. . . So we used up the last of Ms.
Granger’s diesel plowing her field and planting
them. Now we got pumpkin leaves to feed the
goats, and plenty seed for next year.
The crowd is nodding at all of this, confirming the tale.
Now we got nothing that works. Everything is by
hand. . .
35
Many in the crowd are nodding vigorously at this comment. Eyes rolling.
The goat-herder faces Finegan, raising his hands up and grinning.
So, trader, here’s the deal. If you can help us
with the industrial revolution, we can give you
pumpkins and cheese!
The goat-herder turns back to the task at hand, pulling the roasting
pumpkin out of the oven and testing it with a long pronged fork.
______________________________
The next morning the goat-herder is silhouetted against the orange dawn
sky, seated on a stool next to a goat milking station, milking one of
his goats. He swings to the side to pour the milk from the milking
bucket into a milk cooler, tall and with handles on both sides at the
top. Finegan’s bare feet are sticking out of the houseboat. As the
goats bleat, greeting their herder, Finegan’s feet twitch.
______________________________
The goat-herder is squeezing whey out of cheese curds using rough cloth
squares to hold the curds. The whey is being saved as a drink, nothing
wasted. He slams the curd bag on the table to flatten it and form a
rectangle, flips the cloth this way and that to form a package, and
places the curd in a cooler to cure. The goat-herder, who has been
concentrating on his work, has just noticed that Finegan has quietly
arrived. He flashes a quick smile over his shoulder.
Morning!
Finegan says,
I’m ready when you are.
______________________________
Finegan and the goat-herder are approaching a collapsed barn, caved in
at the center, the roof shingles mostly missing. Farming implements are
here and there in the tall grass, devices meant to be dragged behind a
tractor – a raking device meant to collect hay, and a plowing device
with sharp tines meant to plow several rows at once. Finegan and the
goat-herder stride across the barnyard and into the doors of the barn,
now askew due to the collapse.
______________________________
Finegan is walking through the barn, used to house implements rather
than house cows or horses. He is walking slowly along a workbench at
the side, looking at tools laid out or hung on the walls. Several bikes
36
have been tossed into a corner, tires deflated or missing. The old
tractor stands in the center, covered with dust and a few splinters of
boards from the collapsed roof. Some chickens have been roosting in the
barn, and take off squawking as the men make their rounds. Finegan
asks,
So what are you folks doing by hand that you’d
like to have, ah . . mechanized?
______________________________
Joey is tossing some nuts and bolts back into a box, one of many that
has been brought from the houseboat, and placing the boxes back into
the old rusty wagon from the houseboat. Finegan is sitting on a stool,
hunched over what looks like an assemblage of junk, making his final
adjustments. He stands up and stands back, a look of satisfaction on
his face. The goat-herder and the suburbanites are walking up at one
side, and stand in a group, expectantly. Finegan says, proudly,
Behold!
The group does not react, is unimpressed and confused. What does this
contraption do?
Realizing they are not following his genius, Finegan gives a
demonstration. He climbs into a bike seat, one of a pair for a dual
pumping operation. He pats the other seat and motions to the goat-
herder to hop on.
Each seat has a lever, so the contraption can turn by one bike seat
disconnecting while the other stays connected. Thus, the contraption
can turn 180° to the left or the right, depending upon which seat has
disengaged. Finegan waves the watching group away.
Stand back!
Finegan is murmuring instructions to the goat-herder, then pushes a
lever on a control panel between the two bike seats. They both start
peddling and the contraption takes off.
From front to back, it is a multistep operation to clear, plow, and
plant. At the front of the long contraption are lawn mover blades,
recently sharpened, turning round and round. They have been lowered by
37
the lever on the control panel, and turn as the contraption moves,