Out in the Hay

Dan woke up, glancing at the clock that sat on the head board of his giant California King bed.

5:15 AM, the lighted numbers on the clock radio read.

It wasn't set to go off, no need for that. Dan woke up every single day within a few minutes of the same time without fail.

It made no difference at all what time Dan went to bed, still he would awake and get up around 5, sleep after that time was impossible.

He had been doing that since he was big enough to work around the ranch, his Father would come in and wake him, and he would dutifully follow along as they went down to the barn.

Danny had been a bit of a surprise to his folks, somewhat of an accident very late in life. It seemed his Mom and Dad were having fun at a harvest party one Fall that everyone went to.

They both drank some beer, something his Dad almost never did. Since his Mom was thinking she was past all of the concerns of being fertile, they hadn't bothered with the usual condoms.

His Dad did wisecrack something about it being on top of the grain sacks in the back of the old 1936 GMC truck but that is all the detail he ever got about that.

The condoms part Danny knew about, having seen them in the drawer by their bed when he went in there one time to get a flashlight his Dad had asked for. Several packets were opened.

Dan had grinned to himself at that, his Dad by then was coming up on 70 years old and still used them?

Some folks just got set in their ways, it seemed.

His Father was a large man, 6'3" and 235 pounds, and little Danny delighted in being with him, even on the days when it was biting cold or the Southwest wind with rain howled through the draw down by their South pasture, sending slanting sheets of water past the sloughs to the East.

"HMMMMM-BOSS!" His Dad would bellow, the milk cows heads would swing up and look, even though they were a full half mile away. Then they began to move, at a walk at first but soon they all broke into a run, racing each other to get there first for the sweet grain Danny was pouring into the feeding troughs.

His Father stayed on the outside with them, but he always made Danny stay on the other side of the feeding trough by the stack of loose hay, to make sure he didn't get stomped by the huge animals.

Typically they were on the energetic side when they reached the barn, kicking their heels and excited about getting a few bites of the grain.

None of them seemed to mind getting their heads locked into the stanchions if there was food there for them.

Next it was wash their udders, dry them, and sit down to milk. Danny loved the feel of trapping the warm milk, then pulling it out, creating heaps of foam in the metal pail.

Sometimes one of the barn Cats came by hoping, Danny would point and squirt the Cat in the face with a nice shot from the cow's teat.

The Cat loved that of course and his Dad would just grin.

Every day was the same, after the milking it was back to the house where his Mother presented huge mountains of food. Later it was off to one chore or another, there was never any end, there was no way to ever get it all done.

+++

Little Danny liked Sundays, the three of them went to services at the Church and after he could then go and play with the other kids.

Just for a little while, by afternoon it was back to the work.

Danny had a sister, her name was Florence. She left home before he was even born, by the time Danny was in his teens he understood why. His sister was older than him by nearly two decades, Danny knew his cousin Otis had been the reason.

Things like that, back in that era, were a family embarrassment.

He didn't like Otis much, whenever his sister was around Otis would be mean to him, since he was older by a few years.

Of course that was always when they were out of sight, because his Father had that big leather marine belt and was quite happy to use it if he was disobeyed or some kind of trouble was going on.

A couple of times Otis got caught, much to Danny's pleasure.

Otis was clever enough after that to never do anything unless they were out of sight.

Danny never told on him though, since his Dad always said that he should stand up for himself and be a man when anything happened.

Danny was fourteen when Florence and Otis showed up one afternoon, she did that fairly regularly, always wanting some money. Otis was barely 20 by then, and of course he started his usual crap.

Danny was working on the beaten up New Holland hay baler, his Dad had found the old machine down the road a piece, and bought it from their neighbor for $1400.00.

To their family, that was a huge investment.

Of course it didn't work, the neighbor had fought it for two seasons and gave up, buying a new one.

Every time the power takeoff on their old Massey Ferguson was dropped into gear, the machine would start to run, then the safety clutch would slip as the pickup reels stopped.

As it turned out, his Dad couldn't fix it either, and he got very frustrated after continually snugging up the clutch springs until it actually picked the entire reel up when it jammed.

"This don't make no god damned sense at all!" His Dad threw down his wrench, giving up.

Danny was looking under the machine, trying to figure out what was wrong when Otis walked up. Otis proceeded to step on Danny's foot, then he laughed.

"Quit it, Otis!" Danny yelled.

"Whatcha gonna do about it?" Otis teased, stepping on him even harder.

Danny bit his tongue, pulled his feet back, now he was completely underneath the machine. Otis found a stick and was poking the sharp end of it at Danny, so Danny slid even further underneath there.

It was pretty tight, but Danny was only 125 pounds and on the skinny side, even though he was close to 5'9" tall.

Otis was still teasing him, Danny reached for a piece of the frame to pull himself farther underneath when he looked up and saw the shiny spot on the big eccentric drum that operated the hay pickup fingers.

One of the idler bearings was completely gone, leaving just the mounting bolt, it was digging into the round cam that worked the hay pickup fingers.

Of course! With that going on, the pickup fingers would lock up, and the safety clutch would slip. When they snugged up the big springs that kept tension on the clutch, it was going to slip anyway when the reels stopped, otherwise anything going into the machine, like wire or a fence post would tear the machine to pieces.

There were also some marks where a pitch fork had gone though there at one time or another.

Just then Otis stuck him with the stick again, damn it, that hurt!

"Quit it, Otis! I am trying to fix this thing!" He yelled as Otis poked him again.

"Yer too dumb to fix anything!" Otis was laughing at him.

Danny crawled all the way through and out the other side, he was just standing up when Otis came around the corner with a sneer on his face.

Otis looked at him, a bit surprised because Danny was now as tall as he was. It had been nearly a year since Florence had been by, things tend to grow fast when a person isn't looking.

Otis was far heavier, but he was a bit soft around the middle with mildly chubby cheeks.

Only 14 years old, Danny didn't have anything on his body but muscle. They had been running a small sawmill for lumber to repair the barns and Danny had spent an entire Summer shoveling the sawdust into the barnyard to keep the mud down.

Danny also had no idea at all how to fight since he had never been in one, but he was mad and just flailed away at Otis who fought back at first, then soon was only trying to cover up.

It actually was a pretty good scuffle, all the way across the corral, into some black berry bushes that served as a fence on one side, some wallowing in the mud and cow manure by the water trough with Danny on top, ending finally when Danny knocked Otis completely into the watering trough.

Otis of course ran all the way to the house, bawling.

They left soon after that, Florence did some yelling, accusing Danny of being a bully. That by itself was funny since Otis was nearly 20 and Danny was only 14. Plus Otis was also about 50 pounds larger.

His Dad didn't say single word, just puffed on his pipe with a stern look on his face until they were gone.

Then he grinned at Danny and patted his shoulder.

"I know what is wrong with the baler, Dad." Danny told him, dabbing at the blood dripping from his nose.

+++

The old machine clanked and banged, sounding like metal should be flying in all directions, but she spit out the heavy bales regular as clockwork.

That sure made life a lot easier, before they hauled it in loose, pulling it up in slings into the barn using some on the stubborn side mules.

More than once his Dad reached out and grabbed one of them by the tail, giving it a solid twist. That usually got them to give up and pull.

Danny had always been the one on the trip rope, he had to pull with all his might at first to trip the thing but that got a lot easier very quickly.

About 500 pounds of loose hay went up, tripped on the carriage and rolled inside, one yank on the trip rope and the sling dumped it. Then the crew went at it spreading it out with pitchforks while Dan's Dad gathered up the next load with the buck rake he had made out of Fir poles and put on the front of the old Farmall model M they used back then.

One day the Farmall died and there was no more fixing that without far too much expense, so they bought the big Massey industrial.

It ran on diesel instead of gasoline, it took Danny quite some time to figure out how it worked.

That one they bought from the same farmer down the road that they got the baler from, he couldn't figure out how to fix the two stage clutch on the machine.

Danny crawled under there and took off the inspection cover, spotted the six bolts that needed to be shimmed. That only took about an hour, after that the power take off disengaged slick as a whistle, which got him another pat on the shoulder from his Dad.

By then Danny could fix almost anything.

+++

Now coming up on 60 years old, Dan had had the old machines apart and back together so many times he had lost count.

Both his Mom and Dad were gone, his Dad had passed first at 96, getting up at 5 in the morning like always and sitting down to eat his breakfast as Dan came down to join them.

Dan talked to him, telling him what his plans were to plow the South acreage and put in Corn crops. It had already been years since the old man did any real work at all around the place.

The Father had smiled, telling him it sounded like a good idea to diversify. It had been a long time since they bothered with milk Cows although they had one little Jersey they kept for milk for the house.

They also could no longer slaughter beef cattle and sell to the neighbors, the government required them to sell it all at the auctions.

Before they picked a fat steer and the neighbors showed up to take a quarter or a half. But regulations came along, to protect the public all meat had to be handled by the big operations.

So instead of maybe making one or two families ill if the meat was not properly handled, the big operations mixed everything together and sent it all over the country.

One sick cow and hundreds of people got sick, to Dan that just seemed dumb.

But it was the end of a source of income, they no longer could butcher on clean grass, it had to be concrete floors and temperature controlled buildings.

No way could his family afford that.

Dan knew something had to change for them to keep enough revenue coming in to support the huge ranch.

His dad listened quietly to Dan's ideas and finally just nodded, after eating he went to sit in his chair. He went to sleep, that was it.

His Mom did exactly the same thing at age 90 just two years later.

Now the farm was Dan's, the job was up to him. He was confident he could handle it all, it was the only life he had ever known.

His sister arrived to try and claim her fair share, insisting that the ranch be sold so she could get her half.

Dan explained the will to her, she found a lawyer that took the case on contingency.

But the will proved solid, the ranch belonged to Dan. She left in one of her usual huffs, and she never returned. Her lawyer didn't get paid, but it cost Dan a couple of thousand dollars for his own.

No point in her coming back, Dan would not give her any money.

Florence was a sister by blood, but he had not grown up with her and almost didn't know her, since she came by every two or three years for a brief period and then was gone again.

His cousin Otis went into the military, Dan never saw or heard from him again, either.

+++

Dan had married once years before to a woman named Janice Freeman.

That was a whirlwind courtship, Dan was seriously looking for a bride to help out around the place and she seemed to like him. Janice was pretty and had wide hips, big breasts.

She looked like she would have an easy time delivering kids, Dan was pretty good at selecting good breeding stock by then.

Breed her he did, too, trying every single night but nothing happened.

That was while his folks were still alive but after just six months of that she had left in a huff.

Something about all the work, she hadn't married any rich rancher to have to work all day and night every damned day.

That was more or less what she had to say about that, anyway.

Dan also found out that she had been on birth control, no wonder she didn't take.

So there never were any sons or daughters, in fact Dan's entire experience with women was limited to Janice, his short term wife and one woman named Caroline he had dated for several months when he was about 40. There were a few others but nothing went past just one night, most he found it hard to even remember.

Sex with Caroline was great fun, she loved doing it, unlike his wife Janice who looked on that part of married life as a distasteful chore.

Dan was even thinking along the lines of maybe she might be the one?

But Caroline liked to go out drinking and dancing and when Dan was too busy dealing with the huge ranch, she just went by herself.

Caroline got attention very easily and knew it, and she didn't see anything wrong with having fun with someone else.

Dan saw all of that and knew there was no way he could ever have her around and trust her, so he just stopped seeing her.

"You are kind of a stick in the mud anyway." Were her exact words when he told her he didn't want to see her any more.

That was probably true from her point of view, Dan thought.

Over the years there must have been a solid dozen women that stopped by, using one excuse after another.

Dan had that part figured out, he just stayed polite.

Just one of those progressed a bit further, her name was Emily and she brought him some homemade Blueberry rolls. Those were damned good, and while they were sitting in the living room he happened to mention that he had just bought a big Black Angus bull.

They had a few giggles at that, when Dan happened to mention he had bought the new Bull because of the size of it's testicles.

"Big ones are a sure sign of good breeding stock." Emily said, batting her eyes at Dan.

Dan blushed, talking about breeding was something that was normal to him, but it struck him what her reaction was.

Emily smiled at him, reached up and tugged down the zipper on the front of what looked like a jump suit.

There wasn't a darned thing on underneath it except for a set of on the very large size naked breasts. Then she pulled the zipper down even further and demonstrated that her reddish pubic hairs matched that on her head nicely.

Dan could take a hint.

The trouble was that by morning she was talking about moving in and where she would like to rearrange the furniture, plus she suggested she liked white carpets.

Cow manure and white carpets don't work too well together.

That was not the easiest breakup he ever had, it took him damn near a full week to get rid of her.

"I let you fuck me, what in the hell is the matter with you?" Emily yelled at him as she was throwing her things into one of his suitcases.

Dan had no idea how to respond since that actually had been her idea, not his. So he went out and got on the tractor and headed out to the field to spend the day pushing back the berry bushes.

Later he found that Emily hooked up with Henry, the man who ran the feed store. Dan saw her from time to time down there working behind the counter.

Emily always blushed when Dan came in, and he often caught her looking his way but she never said anything.

Dan also noticed that every time he saw her, she was a bit larger.

+++

After that the ranch was all there was, Dan slipped into solo sexuality except for once or twice each month he drove into town.

Jerry Johnson owned a smaller farm about 15 miles away and he mentioned with a wink to Dan that the gal he had living with him worked out of an office in town giving massages.

Jerry was short and very husky guy, he was helpful and they shared crews from time to time. Dan was surprised at the suggestion but it sure served a need so he took advantage of it.

The woman's name was Kaye and she had no concerns at all about taking good care of her male clients, even to the point of peeling her top down and letting them see her breasts while she spent a very long time relieving them with her hands.

Her breasts were on the saggy side but not that bad, it was fun and became enough for Dan. She only charged $30 for the massage, and another added $10 for the extra.

Of course everybody in the area knew all about what she did but nobody ever mentioned anything about it.

Sure, there were laws but in the country some laws just don't apply.

Kind of like in the Fall when Dan would go out and knock down a young buck for meat, the Sheriff knew all about that but never saw anything.

He even dropped by for dinner a few times, enjoying the backstrap with gravy Dan cooked up.

Life became the cattle, the sheep, the crews that came and went and tended the big fields of Corn he now grew, plus he harvested and stored a couple of hundred tons of hay in the Fall.

The rest got sold, that paid for the fuel and the crews. Dan's fields were the largest of all the farms around, everyone came to him for feed stocks. That let them run more cattle and sheep, it all worked out just fine.

Sometimes there would be 20 to 30 of the transient workers out there, they were all mostly good solid people and over the years he had gotten to know a lot of them.

Most of them came back every season, because Dan was fair and treated them well, plus his little cabins were nicer than most with heat and running water and good plumbing. Dan had built them one at a time mostly by himself, now he had a dozen of them, plus he had put in a small RV park since a few of the workers had trailers and brought along their families.

Those even had power and TV hookups, something that was rather rare on a ranch.

Every year more showed up to ask for work than he could hire, and only the best were ever rehired.

Word travels very quickly in the transient worker world, Dan was fair and good to work for so he got his pick of them.

+++

Several families were already in the RV park, most of the cabins were full, Dan went down to check on things when a very dirty white van came down the long driveway.

No trailer, nothing, just a van.

There was nothing odd about that this time of year, so he paid no real attention until a short dark haired Hispanic woman climbed out. Right behind her were three very young boys, she said something to them and they formed a line and stood there quietly.

Looking around, she saw Dan and walked over. The woman looked to be somewhere in her middle 30's, perhaps early 40's, it was hard to tell. She was pretty in a way, with the common roundish face typical of her race, and it was difficult to tell more due to the shapeless light colored garments she wore.