Nan nodded. “It would take a lot of money to get started, wouldn’t it?”
This time Calvin nodded. He paused his eating and looked over at Nan questioningly. “Where you going with this? You know I don’t have plans to do it right now. That plan I was talking about is one of the long-range plans we always try to do for big stuff. Like this house.”
“I know,” replied Nan. She smiled. “I’m not ragging on you. Actually it is the other way around. I’m thinking we should make it a shorter-range plan. Wouldn’t the equipment be collateral for the loan?”
“Sure it would. But like you said, it’s a lot of money. And doing the tree thinning for Mr. Peterson, and even the Calhoun’s property, wouldn’t be enough to make the payments.”
“What about working with Mr. Anderson? Getting some experience. You said once that his old backhoe was barely able to do the work here, it was so worn out. Maybe he’d welcome a silent partner with new equipment.”
“I…” Calvin started to speak, but closed his mouth and looked thoughtful for a moment. “I always figured that if I did it, I’d do it independently.”
“I know you have some experience from when you worked construction when you were going to college, but wouldn’t some hands on work with Mr. Anderson be an advantage? Plus, it would be getting your foot in the door of a lot of customers.”
“That’s true.” Again Calvin’s eyes lost focus as he thought about things. “And you could learn it just as easily as I. I could continue to work at the bank during the week and work with Mr. Anderson on… say… alternate Saturdays. We could continue to do the tree thinning on the alternate Saturdays and on Sundays.”
Calvin looked over at Nan. “That is, if you wanted to…”
“I definitely do want to learn. If I get just a part time job in town, that would leave me plenty of time to work with Mr. Anderson. Do you think he’d take me on?”
Calvin snorted. “He lets Jimmy Hollister work for him. I can’t see him not letting you, even with your lack of experience. He was impressed with the work you were doing here when we were building the house.”
“Okay,” Nan replied. “Then let’s think about this a bit more, and check with Mr. Anderson. You can do your proposal for the bank after that and see if we can get the equipment.”
“This is a big step, Nan,” said Calvin. “As big a step as the house was, and getting married.”
Very seriously Nan said, “If something happens in the near future, we’d never be able to do this. You saw the news last night. Wouldn’t that equipment be invaluable in the aftermath of a serious disaster?”
Calvin nodded. “That’s one of the reasons I wanted to get it. We’re in good shape here, now, but as things get worse there are going to be many, many people needing help to get prepared. We need to think about this some more.”
“I agree. Let’s finish up breakfast and get to work. We can both think about it some more and then discuss it some more. How does that sound?”
“Good. It sounds good.”
With the tandem wheel trailer behind the Dodge, they had all the timber and trimmings cut up and stacked along the lower patio west wall. They’d been keeping track of the firewood they were gathering. This load brought them up to forty cords total. They’d only used a few pieces to test out the fireplace and wood stoves after they’d been installed.
For the moment, they were using the propane appliances, but would use wood when they had more time to manage it. The wood-fired appliances did take somewhat more time to use and maintain. It had been expensive to get the wood-fired hot water heater and the dual fuel furnace in addition to the propane/solar hot water heater, wood/coal heating stove with a useable cooking surface, and the fireplace. They felt the security of having the multiple options was worth it.
So was the expense of three one-thousand gallon buried propane tanks and the twenty one-hundred pound propane tanks they had as back up. The earth-sheltered house required very little heat and no real cooling to be comfortable. The thousand-gallon propane tanks would suffice for at least three years of cooking and heating with propane, perhaps longer.
There was already enough wood to last two years at least. They’d have triple, at least, that amount of wood, by the end of the year with the thinning they were doing for Peterson. Also by the end of the month, they would have twenty tons of anthracite coal. They joined with a few others that had coal type stoves to order a semi-load from a rather distant mine. The shipping on the coal was costing more than the coal itself, but the group had wanted anthracite, rather than bituminous coal for their stoves.
That Monday they took one of the two Jeeps they owned on the journey to town and the city. After a quick kiss, Calvin dropped Nan off at the post office. It would be some time before they would have rural mail delivery, even to the end of their road, where it met the county road. Calvin and Nan were inclined to just keep the post office box they originally rented rather than switching. It wasn’t that much more of a trip to go into town to get it than picking it up at the county road, when that service became available.
It was too early for the mail, of course, but Nan wanted to check the community bulletin board for potential jobs. When she saw the notice Mr. Anderson, or more probably, his wife, had posted, she couldn’t keep the grin off her face. He was looking for some temporary office help.
She headed down the sidewalk jauntily, on the way to the small office space Mr. Anderson kept for his various business endeavors. Nan recognized Mrs. Anderson sitting behind the desk in the office. Mrs. Anderson had brought lunch out to Mr. Anderson several times when he was working out at Calvin’s and Nan’s. She had enjoyed the trips, and the highly unusual house being built.
“Hi, Mrs. Anderson,” Nan said cheerfully.
A smile brightened Mrs. Anderson’s face. “Hello, young lady. It is very nice to see you again. How do you like your new home, now that you’ve been in it for a few weeks?”
“Oh, we just love it! It is everything we expected, and more. It is so quiet out there, and cozy.”
“Ah, but such a road!” replied Mrs. Anderson.
“True. The road isn’t much, but the service truck and the Jeeps do just fine. Going to be a little harder this winter, I know, but I believe it will be worth the hassles.” It just occurred to Nan that the equipment she and Calvin were considering getting would allow them to keep the road in much better shape. A good point to bring up with Calvin. One of his biggest worries was her getting stuck or stranded on the road.
“Well, let’s hope so,” replied Mrs. Anderson. “And what brings you to the office today. Perhaps an invitation to a house warming party?”
It had not occurred to either her or Calvin to have a house warming party, but Mrs. Anderson obviously wanted to see the completed house.
“Not exactly,” replied Nan. “I do want to invite you out to the house, but for a business meeting. Of course, we could do it here, but I thought you might like to see the house now that it is completed. Mr. Anderson was such a big help to us.”
“That would be wonderful, my dear! When, may I ask?”
“Why, at your earliest opportunity,” said Nan. “Tonight if you’re of a mind.”
“I’m sure Herbert and I can make it. What should we bring?”
“Not a thing,” admonished Nan. “We want to repay your kindness since we moved here.” Nan smiled brightly again. “We do kind of want something from you and Mr. Anderson.”
“Sit down, dearie, and tell me what this is all about.”
Nan took a seat across the desk from Mrs. Anderson. “Well, it’s really two things,” Nan said. “First, I’ve decided to go back to work, and I saw your notice at the post office and wanted to apply for the job. Now I know…”