Page 6 of Big Island Neighbors
Water bills were one thing that Tara didn’t have to worry about.
Affording feed this year… well, that was another story. One that she was still trying to figure out.
She closed the gate to the pasture and carried her pail of milk towards the house. The goat milk was already in the fridge, the sun was getting higher, and her kids were all outside.
Cody, her sixteen year old who towered awkwardly over both of his parents, was mucking out the goat shed. Not strictly a morning chore, but he was smart to get it out of the way while the day was still cool. His shaggy brown hair - too short for a ponytail but long enough to get in his eyes - was held out of his face by a bandana.
He looks like a girl.Mitch wasn’t there, but after twenty years together, she could hear her husband’s voice in her mind.
Tara frowned and shook her head slightly, trying to shake off the ugly remarks he’d been making more and more as Cody grew.
He and Cody had been so close once. But in the past few years - maybe a decade now, if she really thought about it - Mitch had become increasingly critical. Things had gotten so bad that Cody hardly left his bedroom when his dad was home.
Well, he’s not home now,Tara thought grimly.
She walked on, and her heart lifted when she spotted the twins.
Piper was crawling under the bushes in search of eggs, hunting for nests while the chickens were busy with the grain she had scattered. Her short hair stuck up from her head every which way. She’d hacked it off herself the month before when an acquaintance called her Paige for the umpteenth time.
It baffled Tara how anyone could get the twins mixed up after knowing them for even a few minutes. They were identical, but their energy was drastically different. Even going by looks alone, the liberal sprinkling of freckles on their faces were two distinct patterns.
Well, now anyone could tell them apart at a glance.
Paige’s long red hair streamed down her back in a loose braid. She was cutting tithonia for the rabbits. The huge bushes with their sunflower-like flowers were a great source of feed.
Inside, once the milk was strained and tucked away in the back of the fridge, she pulled together a quick breakfast. Eggs from their chickens, herbs from the garden, goat cheese she had made herself.
Making nourishing meals for her babies with food that she had produced herself was her favorite thing in the world. She felt a warm sense of pride as she slid the frittata into the oven.
“Is breakfast ready?” Cody asked as he walked in.
“Not quite.”
He went to the fridge and took out a quart-sized jar of fresh goat milk, which he drank in one go. After that, he wolfed down a couple of the scones that she had made the day before. She had no doubt that he’d eat half of the frittata too. They were well into the bottomless-pit phase of his teenage years.
“Rabbits are fed,” Paige announced. When she got closer to her brother, she wrinkled her nose. “You stink.”
“Farm chores aren’t all flowers and bunnies,” he teased with a grin.
“This isn’t life on the prairie. Go take a shower.”
“Can’t,” he said as he bit into another scone. “Too hungry.”
“Mom,” Paige whined, looking to Tara for support.
“You have time before the frittata’s ready,” she told him.
“Fine.” He stuffed the last of the scone into his mouth and headed down the hall.
“Hey Mom?” Paige’s lilting tone told her that there was a request coming.
“Yeah?”
“Can I take more riding lessons?”
Tara felt a prickle of alarm, but she kept her voice calm. “More than once a week?”
“Yeah. It’s not enough. I have time, and I miss Annabell.” She rode the same horse every week at a friend’s ranch, taught by his teenage daughter. “Anyway, think of how much better I’d be if I went two or three times a week! I could improve twice or thrice as fast!”
