Total pages in book: 69
Estimated words: 66205 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 331(@200wpm)___ 265(@250wpm)___ 221(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 66205 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 331(@200wpm)___ 265(@250wpm)___ 221(@300wpm)
They’d had plenty to keep them busy. Ryan and Avery had come up one weekend to help Darius install solar panels on the back of the roof of both the main cabin and the one for guests. During lockdown, they’d grown closer to Sebastian, one of Darius’s bartenders, and his husband, Blake. It’d taken one barbecue and approximately half a bottle of whiskey for Darius and Blake to get creative on how a cluster of livestock pens could look on the other side of the stream.
Over the course of a summer, they’d cleared the area below the stream, they’d built a very small version of a barn there, they’d moved the chicken coop, they’d built three pens for animals, and they’d framed the area with a picket fence and raised planting beds where they could grow more vegetables.
It wasn’t actually a barn, Gray supposed. But it had a similar design, and it was used to store animal feed—as well as shelter the two pigs they had. According to the capacity regulations, four more pigs would fit in there.
Darius’s next project was to clear a larger area so they could have a pasture.
The trees weren’t the problem, though. It was the soil. They needed a foundation suited for growing grass.
Otherwise, he couldn’t buy his damn goats.
Because, yeah, that was apparently happening.
“What’s that smirk for?” Darius kissed it.
“Your passionate ramblings about the benefits of owning goats,” Gray chuckled.
“Hey, I know when I gotta sell it.” Darius smirked back. “You’re on board now, aren’t you?”
“You know I am.” Gray locked his arms around Darius’s neck. “I still don’t know how you’re gonna turn a piece of actual forest into a grass pasture, though.”
Darius frowned to himself. “Yeah, I’m still working on that. But I’ve seen others do it online. I know it can be done.”
Gray had no doubt. In the meantime, he was Googling the most bizarre crap. Like, how to milk goats and the process of turning said milk into cheese.
How life had changed.
It was just funny to him. Former hockey player with hopes of perhaps becoming a counselor or something similar, maybe with a nice apartment in the Valley…
He couldn’t picture any of that anymore. The mere notion of living in an apartment in the most populated area of Camassia made him feel claustrophobic. Up in the mountains, they had freedom. Hard work and freedom. And two pigs, seventeen chickens, and two dogs. Then there were the owls.
That was another thing that’d changed. Darius had literally woken up Gray in the middle of the night to discuss an article he’d just read on outdoor cats causing more harm than anything else. So instead of getting a couple cats to keep the rodents away, they’d spent a weekend building nesting boxes to attract owls. And they’d succeeded. Two nesting boxes, two trees—on each end of the property—two owls. The last one had moved in this past January.
“I wanna go home,” he sighed. “For chrissakes, I’m at some luxury resort in Mexico, and all I can think about are freaking owls and shit.”
Darius smiled and moved them closer to the pool’s edge. “You don’t know how happy that makes me.”
“You’ve corrupted me.” Gray nipped at Darius’s jaw.
That made Darius laugh a little. “Don’t act all innocent. Last time I checked, the orchard was your passion project—and remind me, who started his own pharmacy in the backyard last year?”
“Pharmacy,” Gray laughed. It was a medicinal garden. With herbs and plants they could use for minor stuff, like cuts and scrapes, like aches and rashes. He shrugged. “It’s practical. And we needed to do something with the space where the chicken coop stood before.”
“Hey, I’m agreeing with you—”
“Did I hear someone say chicken coop?” That was Greer.
Gray glanced over at the man and smiled. “Yeah, we recently moved ours.” They were almost at the edge of the pool again, so he disentangled himself from Darius and aimed for his cocktail. “Do you have chickens?” He didn’t see any other reason for the topic to be interesting to others.
“We do, yeah.” Greer nodded and refilled his glass. “Recently expanded with rabbits and a pig too.”
“Oh my God, there’re two of you, baby,” Gray told Darius.
“Rabbits—that’s a fine idea,” Darius said. “They’re cheap, easy to cook, and don’t take up much space. We’ll add that to the list, knucklehead.”
Gray snorted and took a big gulp from his drink. Phew, Ryan didn’t mess around with the vodka. The drink barely had any OJ in it. Plenty of lime juice, though. It was good.
For the next several minutes, Darius and Greer became the best of friends as one topic set off another. Farm animals, growing crops, keeping living expenses down, and the big winner, self-reliance.
“It’s like peering into my future,” Ryan mused.
Gray grinned. “I’m glad you’re prepared.”
He was starting to wonder if Darius might invite Greer and his family to the wedding, which would’ve been ironic. But then Gray heard them say something about meeting up the next time Darius and Gray visited DC.