Song of the South

Farmer-to-Farmer

Just as her father predicted, their mother hadn’t been seen since she dropped off the newborn. It infuriated her to no end but there was nothing she could do about it. Kinsey had her hands full so that glorious day meeting Shinedown slipped to the back of her mind. Her father had gotten ill with Pneumonia so she was sitting in the living room trying to nurse him while catching up on some of her school work. She received an email from an address she wasn’t familiar with. Her gut instinct was to open it and see who had emailed her.

Miss Kinsey,

I don’t know if you remember me or not. My name is Bill. I’m the manager for Shinedown. Barry is absolutely in love with your fruit and wants to come back down in a few weeks to see about making a deal with you.

Please let me know if you are interested and if so when would be a good time to call you to make arrangements. We all understand you are a very busy woman so we want to work around your schedule. I look forward to hearing from you.

Best Regards,

Bill McGathy

She was stunned! She wasn’t honestly expecting to ever hear from any member of Shinedown, much less for one of them to want to come out to their farm! Any income would be good so she sat back thinking of when the best time would be for him to come by. With shaking hands, she hit the reply button.

Mr. McGathy,

I… I don’t know what to say! I’m happy everyone enjoyed our fruits! My Dad is ill at the moment but he should be well enough for visitors in a couple weeks. Let’s say two weeks? Will that be enough time for you?

Sincerely,

Kinsey

She didn’t quite know what to tell him. Her Dad started coughing pretty hard again so she set her laptop aside to tend to him. As she was giving him another dose of his cough medicine, the baby started crying. Making sure her Dad would be ok, she headed upstairs to check on the little guy. Hayden and Bella were in her room watching a Scooby Doo movie so she peeked in to check on them as well. Thankfully her siblings were very well behaved!

The baby was awake, needing a diaper change, and was hungry. Kinsey didn’t let things get to her, or so she tried, but she was feeling very stressed. She took everything day-by-day and tried not to let things get under her skin. She wasn’t able to get back to her laptop again until after everyone had been bathed and in bed.

Bill said that two weeks would be perfect and asked for directions to her farm from where they had met. She was quick to reply this time and apologized for not getting back to him sooner. She gave him as explicit directions as she could so they wouldn’t get lost. The next morning as Kinsey was making breakfast, she told her father about Shinedown, more especially Barry, wanting to come out to the farm to talk about buying fruits and vegetables from them.

Although he was a bit skeptical of their motives, he did think that the band, or some members of the band, buying fruits and vegetables from them would be a good thing. He told his daughter to be careful and to not let them bully her into a price she wasn’t comfortable with. She smiled warmly at her father but said nothing. As her father ate his breakfast, she finished getting the two older children ready for school.

Hayden, Bella, and Lane stayed home with her unless she had things she had to do that wouldn’t allow her to keep a good eye on them. It was a long two weeks. Her father had gotten better but was still pretty sick. Kinsey was quite tired, staying up half the night with a very fussy baby, taking care of her sick father, helping the older two children with their school work and school projects, and on top of all that, taking care of the farm and trying to sell their fruits and vegetables at the local farmer’s market.

Two weeks later when the doorbell rang, she got a little surprise. Kinsey was only expecting Bill and Barry. On her doorstep stood Barry, Bill, AND Eric! Barry and Eric shot one another a worried glance when they got a good look at her. There were bags under her eyes, she looked like she hadn’t slept good in weeks, and there was a spot on her chest where the baby had thrown up. She was holding the smallest of her siblings in her arms as well.

“Howdy! It’s good to see you. Come on in!” Kinsey cheerfully stated as she opened the door to allow the three men to enter

“Daddy! They’re here.” Kinsey called out to her father

She led the three men into the living room where her father was laying on the couch. Barry looked at her father and knew he was seriously ill. She stopped and kneeled down next to her father. He turned his head to look at the trio of strange men.

“Daddy, this is Bill, that’s Barry, and that one is Eric. Gentlemen this is my Dad Troy. I’m gonna take them on a tour of the farm. Call me if you need anything before we get back.” She stated

“Be safe.” He stated before closing his eyes

“Just let me get the stroller for the baby and we can head out.” Kinsey explained as she went to the coat closet to fetch said item

The trio of men watched as she got the infant strapped into it. Eric and Barry stood back where neither she nor her father could hear them.

“She looks sooooo tired.” Eric exclaimed

“I wonder if she has any help around here?” Barry replied

“Ok, gentlemen. Follow me.” Kinsey sweetly stated

Kinsey took the trio to the orchard first. She told them how old the trees were, how they were planted, how they were harvested, when they harvested their fruit, and answered any questions they had. Barry was quite impressed! Bill was staying quiet just letting the relationship develop naturally. He knew how excited Barry was to get these fruits from her farm. He had talked about nothing else for several days after they had left!

She told them not including the orchard or the house, the actual farm land was about 5 acres. They grew watermelons, cantaloupes, potatoes, sweet potatoes, carrots, corn, onions, peppers (green, yellow and red bell peppers as well as Jalepenos), tomatoes, and okra. They were known in the community for their cantaloupes and watermelons though. Barry was very excited to get to see how they ran their farm. She explained how they farmed, what help they got, and where they sold their crops.