Page 45 of Cole's Joy
Cole explained what the ranch was, and how Erin had the stallions, the on-line business, and how she had built Broken. As he talked, he drew the areas on the paper, with the cabins, and then explained about where Lois lived and the homes there.
“Holy shit,” Kade said, and looked at Lois in fear. “Sorry, Ma’am.”
“Don’t be. If you think this crude drawing on paper is impressive, wait until you see it in person.” She laughed. “This,” she pointed to the center of the page. “I believe is three thousand acres, while this,” she pointed to where she lived, “Is five thousand acres.”
“What’s this?” Lane asked as he pointed to the blank spot that had been drawn as a rectangle, but not mentioned yet.
“That’s what we’re going to talk to you about. I won’t get into all the details now, but this area is a little over thirteen hundred acres. It’s been dubbed New Double, because there was The Double A ranch over in Wyoming. One of the women who lives and works at Broken is the owner. Again, I won’t get into the minute details, but shit happened. I was the manager and kept it afloat until she could make her way back. With Erin’s help, we were able to move the entire ranch, minus the buildings from Wyoming to Colorado.”
“Where exactly is this?” Kade asked as he pointed to the drawings.
“Roughly three hours south of here, on the other side of Fool’s Gold.”
“Never heard of it. Okay, what else?”
“Currently, New Double has twenty-seven racehorses on the ranch. Back in Wyoming, there was a track so we could exercise them. We don’t have that here. I’m only the manager, but Naomi trusts me. While she’s the manager at Broken, she still has me as the manager of New Double. I feel that the horses we currently have aren’t living up to their potential.”
“Why?”
“I have no help. There is me, my good friend, Clem, he oversees the day-to-day work, Ducky, who was the original owner of the farm. It was a chicken farm for generations, and those barns were converted into horse stables. Then there’s Ann, the only hired hand we have. I know this doesn’t mean anything, but Ducky is in his late eighties, though he still gets around good, and is also still of sound mind. Clem is in his mid-sixties, I just turned sixty-nine last week, and Ann is in her late twenties. Her boyfriend is overseeing a building project at Broken.” He sighed heavily and rubbed the back of his neck. “I need help. Whenthe people at Broken have time, they come over to exercise the horses, but without a race track, we can’t really work them.”
“I totally understand,” Lane said. “What is this about converting to rodeo stock?”
“Because I feel the horses would be better off with new owners that do race them, I don’t want to stop working with horses, and we’re in an area where the rodeo is big. I thought I could offer a place for people to board their animals for the winter, and I want to build an area so they can come and work them. Naomi is a former barrel racer.”
Cole paused when the twins looked at each other in shock, then seemed to vibrate in excitement. “Wait, what is her last name?”
“Alcott. Why?”
“Oh my god, remember we said we have three sisters at home? The middle one loves rodeo just as much as we do and she has all these videos of a barrel racer name Naomi Alcott.”
“Wait,” Kade said quickly. “I thought she died.”
“No, that was the problem we ran into. Her horse was drugged before her last run, and her father, the bastard that he is, threatened the life of the doctor.”
“How? Why?”
“He told the doctor that if he didn’t tell his daughter that she would be confined to a wheelchair for the rest of her life, then he would sue him for some bullshit charge. The doctor believed him. It took six years, but Naomi is walking again, she’s the manager at Broken, and they are training rescued horses to help with the rehabilitation of people with injuries.” He smirked when he looked at Kade. “People like you.”
“And my daughter,” Lois said. “She was in an accident and blew out her knee. After four operations, the doctor and physical therapist said there’s nothing they could do and recommended The Broken Wheel ranch to her. That’s one of the reasons wemoved here, but then my granddaughter is a certified vet, and a farrier, so she was offered a job. I owned and operated a plant nursery for decades, and Erin offered me the job to put in a garden and stock the community pantry.”
“I don’t understand that.” Lane shook his head in confusion. “Why would you need a community pantry with only a few people?”
“Oops,” Cole laughed. He looked at the map and started making small squares. He had eight, then started making x’s and ended up with a dozen of them. “These squares are two-bedroom cabins that sit on two acres each. These are two cabins with four-bedrooms that people stay in until the other cabins are being built. That’s what the x’s are. The new cabins.”
“These cabins.” Lois pointed to the squares. “Are occupied with the workers on Broken. Two people each. When we get together to have a BBQ to catch up, there’s close to thirty people. Fool’s Gold is roughly an hour’s drive. We don’t run to town every day. When someone goes, we plan ahead and pick up groceries for everyone. Over at New Double, a building will be installed and it will be the community pantry. It will have store bought, and home canned goods. There will also be an industrial sized walk-in cooler, like in restaurants, along with a walk-in freezer. Erin has a couple dozen head of cattle she uses for beef. We help with the processing fee and are allowed meat. Pru has chickens for eggs, and some specifically for meat.” She saw their looks of confusion, and nodded. “Think of your pantry at home, and all the canning your mother does for you for the winter. Now, picture almost forty people that need to be fed.” At their nods, she smiled.
“Meat chickens. Yeah, one of our sisters had them as a 4-H project.” Lane nodded. “Okay, I can see that. So, what would you want us for?”
“To help Ann with the horses we now have, until we can sell them. Help Ryan with what he’s supervising being built.” He looked at them with a grin. “Erin calls them bunktels.” He described them, and saw their excitement. “I’m sure the two of you can stay in one of them until the other cabins are built. Like I said, New Double is a work in progress. It was fallow for close to thirty years, and we’re bringing it back to life. Lois and I are going to rodeos so I can get a look at the stock and talk to people, and Lois found Kade. Please don’t take this as me being rude, but we’re looking for people that love horses, love the rodeo, but either don’t have two pennies to rub together, or a pot to piss in. We want people who are hungry to work, but not just during the winter season. We’re not going to be a seasonal employment ranch. If you come to work for us, then we expect you to put in a hard day’s work, and it’s not been discussed yet, but we might be able to eventually employ a cook for the hands at New Double. I know Broken doesn’t have one because everyone that works there are couples in committed relationships and they go home to each other at night.”
“Same with Erin, and my daughter and granddaughter. I also don’t know if this will factor into anything, but the guys that work on Broken, are all former Navy SEALs. Naomi’s boyfriend is not only her boyfriend, but he was their commanding officer in the service, and…” she paused for dramatic effect. “He is Erin’s brother.”
The two nodded to them, then looked at each other. “I don’t think this is too crass to ask, but what are the wages, and will there be any benefits?”
Cole told them the benefits like health insurance, and weekends off, and wrote on a piece of paper and passed it over. “That’s the starting salary.”
The boys flipped the paper over and jerked like they had been slapped. “How?”
