Thirst
Chapter Notes
At first, the chapter name was a humorous placeholder. Upon my final read-through?
It's perfect.
The next playlist is entitled, 'The village baths', and I click to watch them get to work on extending
the already large deck that contains Kara and Nia's little homes and Brainy's trailer tucked up
against the back. With Alex's beefy truck, the trailer is pulled away and left nearby in the weeds.
Stacks of more deck boards made of recycled plastic go in place more quickly than the underlying
support structure of treated wood and concrete footings.
A delivery comes in that first day, shrink-wrapped pallets of neatly bundled bits of building just
like the shed kits had been. This one is different in that it's made of something Kara explains are
called 'sips panels'.
"It means structurally insulated panels. See, there's plywood or OSB, that's the chunky particle
board stuff to most of you and what we have here, and it's glued to either side of a core of
styrofoam that is the insulation. We got the extra thick six inch stuff, 'cause snow! So the panels
are strong, stable and pretty easy to run plumbing and electrical through. And it's its own structure,
so we don't have to build two by four wall innards or any of that stuff. So it should go fast!"
She's right, the panels pre-cut and stacked in relative order with a detailed set of directions that
Brainy takes charge of. It's funny to listen to his crisp, formal speech behind the camera keeping
the women organized. Atop posts set in deep concrete footings, a structure begins to emerge, not
much larger than the nearby saloon, but with a second story to double its useful space. It's all hands
on deck to get the larger set of pre-made stairs in place, then they have to wrestle up the smaller set
to the landing and then into position.
On day two, they're up with the sun, setting more of the sips panels in place to shape the roof. I
can't help my instinctual fear of these admirable idiots some three stories off the ground, wrestling
the large panels into place and screwing them down. At least there are safety harnesses involved.
Most of the high work is done by Alex and Nia, and that makes sense as Kara and Lucy are too
excitable to be safe up there.
So, the odd thing about the bathhouse is that half of one of the exterior walls is left unfinished. It's
odd looking, with one wall only half sided in, a hallway dumping out into open air, the rough in of
a kitchen standing completely exposed. Thankfully, Kara explains that they'll soon break down the
big tent and set it up to enclose the kitchen until they can get a permanent structure up. Clever!
With a combination of muscle power and the truck's winch, panels are sent up to be secured,
followed by long sheets of artistically corrugated steel painted slate blue. The roof is almost done
when Nia slips and Alex instinctually lunges to grab her arm. And gets slammed into the top ridge
of the roof for her troubles.
Yes, I gasp like some cartoon damsel. Shut up.
Laughing, Alex hangs on while Nia gets herself situated, waving off the concern over the blood
dripping over her lips and chin. Still completely amused, Alex fingers her split lip and slaps at the
speckles of blood on the blue paint.
"It's my roof now!"
Honestly, she's insane… and I desperately want to kiss that damaged smile and make it all better.
"You gonna live, Doc?" Lucy shouts up with all the sarcasm expected and Alex's offended look
equals it.
"Lucifer, I have been shot at and stabbed and punched unconscious by a tweaker who thought I
was a beeping bear. I did not smack my head or wrench my neck and I can survive a split lip.
What?"
That last question is aimed at a horrified-looking Nia -and I'm right there with her- and it takes
her a moment to say somewhat faintly, "that's a lot to unpack. I'm stuck somewhere between
'stabbed' and 'bear'."
Alex just laughs.
I'm torn between admiration, amusement and a sharp lust for this wild creature. She is equal parts
crazy and amazing, sassing about terrible things in her past while sitting on a sheet metal roof
thirty feet in the air.
The video ends with Alex and Nia shimmying on their butts to the ladder at the low edge of the
roof, where Alex pantomimes like she's going to take a flying leap, then dies laughing as even the
normally unflappable Lucy looks alarmed for a moment. Kara looks like she just about pissed
herself. In fact, when Alex reaches the ground, she barely has time to turn before the larger Kara
has her by the collar and has gently slammed her back into the extension ladder.
"I'll give you a head injury, you-"
The scene abruptly cuts to the drone camera that watches as Kara clamps Alex into an awkward
headlock and bodily drags her to the tent, assumedly for some tending to.
Still feeling like I'm far too caught up in that last video, I shut down my browser and set aside the
computer for a bit.
They must sleep amazingly well with the hours they put in. I envy them that. Looking down at my
hands, then doing a scan of my familiar body, I note that the only calluses I have are from holding
a pen and my limited musculature is from exercise machines and a moderately active life. Not that
any lover has ever complained about my body! It gets me thinking about my crush and fantasizing
about those doubtlessly work-rough hands and the glorious power behind them.
Clearing my throat, I do my best to shake off the lusty images and the heat I can feel from cheeks
to cleavage. Maybe I should wait to comment for a bit. Playful flirting might turn to inappropriate
lust right about now.
"You still enjoying those videos?" Sam teases from far to close and I jump, whipping my head
around where I'm curled up on the couch and nearly knocking myself to the floor. She's grinning
that Cheshire cat grin, the one that would be irritating if she weren't so cute, and sipping at a mug.
God, I hadn't even heard her walk in!
"Sam!" I gasp, a bit breathless and dramatic, but she really did startle me!
She hums a wordless noise as suggestive as her grin. With a sexy sashay to her hips, Sam
approaches, setting aside her mug to lean over me. Instead of the kiss I'm expecting, she makes me
squeak with a toothy nuzzle at my throat. Good goddess, that feels good.
"This blush is sexy on you," she purrs and makes me whine when she stands back up to lightly
smack my knee. "Scoot over and we can finish up wherever you're at together."
I know Sam well and if I comply with her frisky bossiness, I'm betting I can coax her off for some
recreation once she's teased me enough. So I let her settle in behind me and grab the computer to
click on the next playlist, simply called, 'Bees!'
A golden-retriever-excited Kara rockets at her sister to nearly send them both ass over heels into
the wet grass, squealing on about, "they're here! They're here!" A fast-forward trip to the miniscule
post office/general store has a box in Kara's hands that is about the size of a smaller carryon
suitcase. She holds it like its breakable glass, her face wreathed in wonder.
A just as fast trip home has the sisters climbing out of the truck and the others wandering over to
see the newest additions. Alex's smile is small around her split lip, held together with a butterfly
bandage, and is a mix of fond and annoyed. With a glance to ensure Kara's not going to trip over
her own feet in her intensity over her bees, Alex is off on an exasperated tear.
"I know most of them mean well, but if one more guy gives me the shtick of, 'well golly gee,
missy, you sure seem to know what you're doin' I'm gonna sic the beeping llama on them. You'd
think this being Gaysville USA would rub some of the misogyny off."
Kara taps Brainy on the shoulder and he swings the camera over, nearly clocking her in the face.
"Pardon me," he mutters and Kara smiles.
"The world needs more actual nice men like you, pal. You don't impose yourself on women or
assume we don't know what we're doing."
His protest is instant and emphatic. "Certainly not!"
"You the best!" Alex yells as she strides away to the barn. Past the four makeshift pens full of halfgrown
chickens are a jumble of supplies. Even though the large box she pulls out of the mess is
clearly quite heavy, she hoists it onto her shoulder and heads for the hoop greenhouses.
Between the muscles and the low-slung, baggy jeans, I'm having quite the drool. That carries me
through Kara's happy rambling on about the supplies and the fascinating beehive kit she's ordered.
The subjects range over general care of the helpful insects, to little details that Kara is very careful
to adhere to, like how the hive entrance should face east to catch the morning sun and things called
'mouse guards', and sticky traps for predatory mites and beetles and moths.
I'm always happy to watch Alex work, not gonna lie, and I'm perfectly fine learning more than I
will ever need to know about honeybees as the price for the show.
The hive comes together into a rectangular wooden box like a coffin that stands on sturdy legs. The
roof is lightly peaked and has metal roofing material tacked onto it for being out in the elements.
There are small slits on the side I can only assume are for the bees to fly in and out. When the thing
is complete, the sisters hang wooden frames on the inside. Some of them have molded plastic in a
honeycomb shape mounted in them and some are open for the bees to build their comb in.
At first, I'm utterly confused why Kara keeps calling the box made of window screen material
containing the bees a 'nuke'. A quick Google search reveals it's 'nuc' as in nucleus colony. That
makes far more sense. With the hive complete, the sisters set the bee box inside, open it, and fill a
plastic feeder trough with heavy sugar syrup to feed the insects while they settle in.
Then it's back to work, though Kara fretting over her new pets is a clear distraction.
There's a break from the bath house to lay foundations nearby, Lucy's voiceover explaining that
she's bought a kit house made of -all the things- two international shipping containers. That
should be interesting. Despite the sogginess of spring still clinging on, the first of a handful of
cement trucks arrive to dump their loads into low frames the team builds. The first is for Lucy's
home and the rest goes to a far larger pad that will anchor the saloon kit we're all curious about and
the big salvaged shed from the ransacked farm.
When the bathhouse exterior is complete, the tent is taken down, scrubbed with a bit of soap and
several push brooms, and set back up to enclose the exposed side of the bathhouse. Ah, now I get
what they're doing!
In a single day, half tripping over one another in their haste, the five friends get one bathroom
complete enough to use, drawing straws for the order that they each get to indulge in a proper bath.
Nia is delighted to be the first and giggles at Alex's pouting over her short straw.
"Oh sure, laugh it up, little sister two!" she teases and Nia looks shocked and then teary at the
adoption.
The days seem to be flying by for the busy quintet and the on and off again Maggie.
Lucy's house shows up as two honest-to-Abe twenty-foot shipping containers painted a pleasant
grass green trimmed in summer sky blue. Each has been extended in height and resided in a much
nicer corrugated metal. Windows, doors, cabinets, appliances and hardwood floors are already in
place when the enormous sheets of shrink wrap come off.
A special forklift carried on the rear of one of the delivery trucks easily hoists the containers while
Lucy hides nervously behind an amused Alex. Nia takes over ensuring that the boxy pieces are
delicately set into place tucked close together and offset by some five feet along their length for
some additional visual interest and windows. A little finagling, some pushing and pulling and a
few hollow thuds that make the team cringe, and it's over.
As the trucks drive away, the team shares a long look and a few pointed comments that the road
has got to be prioritized. The heavy vehicles have torn up the ground and there was more than once
that the footing was treacherous enough that the delivery people were doubtlessly swearing
colorfully.
Another useful trick for the fast-forward sequences, I'll bet.
Inside the cute green and blue house, Team Lanvers admires the snug yet surprisingly spacious
interior.
"This is really cool, Lucy," Kara marvels and I have to agree. There's a nicely appointed kitchen
with green-washed cabinets, a moderate bathroom with a corner shower and a huge opening
between the two containers. Stepping over the raw slash where the units need to be sealed together,
the gang pokes their noses into the small bedroom and takes down the wood bracing holding more
goodies tight to the living room wall. There lies the sliding glass back door, a small woodstove and
it's ducting, a chunky air-conditioning unit, and a jumble of other goodies.
"Sweet," Alex pipes up in a bright tone and smacks her hands together to rub them eagerly. "Let's
get your walls and roof buttoned up in case of rain. The interior can wait for now."
LL Not-Your-Neck-Of-The-Woods 1 minute ago
I love the building projects! There's something about the focus and diligence that is
enrapturing.
Next video and a new day is the painfully hilarious shearing of the herd. Despite what is clearly a
warmish day, the gang is dressed in their weatherproof Carhartt best in defense of potential
defensive spitting and flailing cloven hooves. A stranger is there to do the actual shearing, but the
gang I have come to love has to do most of the rest of the work. It takes the Danvers sisters and Nia
to corner Jerkbutt and get a halter on her to kick off the festivities.
Oh and kick she does!
Grouchy, squirmy and complaining, Jerkbutt is a huge hassle, but at least she doesn't spit at a very
patient Kara holding her halter. Though she does bash Alex into the wall a couple times. Finally,
the stranger gets the bulk of the matted and filthy coat off. The 'I'm gonna barf' look says it all as
Lucy gingerly wraps the mess up in a tarp and evacuates the scene.
The alpaca are even less happy, but are smaller and more easily managed; and even I can see that
they are immediately relieved once shorn clean. They prance and shake themselves out and trot out
to the patchy fields to browse.
The end of the video is a shot of a deep trench dug by the big orange Kubota, fleeces piled in the
bottom. With great relish, Lucy mans the earth-mover attachment on the back and starts to bury the
whole stinking mess.
"Next year, the herd will be in good shape," Alex comments to the camera. "And we'll have proper
fleece to work with."
"And happier animals!" Lucy shouts out as the toothy bucket end scrapes dirt viciously into the
trench to eliminate the evidence of the poor care of their cloven-hoofed friends.
Roads, grass, kittens and chicks! May 11 & 12.
12875 views
Rainbow Haven Acres
Published on May 20, 2017
With less dramatic temperatures and precipitation, Team Lanvers turned to different
tasks.
First up was improving the gravel road. As much as they were all desperate to get
septic fields installed and never see a porta-potty again, roads had to come first. Even
the mid-weight maintenance trucks for the bathroom rentals were having trouble
getting in.
Thankfully, the old tree farm in the back forty of the property meant the road had
originally been built for fully-loaded semi trucks, which gave them a good base to
clean up.
With a surprisingly adept Brainy at the controls of the big Kubota to scrape the road
flat and calculate what would be needed, Alex took the smaller John Deere and its big
mower plate to knock down everything in the neglected pasture areas. With the
exceptions of a few healthy trees for ambiance and shade. Then she switched out that
device for a rented seed spreader to scatter bags of orchard grass seed mixed with
about ten percent alfalfa and just a smattering of edible flowers over the neglected
pasture. It would be welcome for human eyes and camelid bellies.
"Oh my god… Sam, she's planting flowers. Flowers! With that tractor. By the acre. How has no
woman put a ring on that?"
"Right? Wife goals for sure."
Pleased with her day's work, Alex drove the little John Deere over to the others,
freeing a grateful Nia to scamper off and get some dinner prepared. Letting a weary
Lucy take over the small tractor, Alex grabbed her shovel and bantered with her sister.
Not many people could still have any energy, much less cheer after shoveling wet soil
and heavy gravel all day, but Kara had never been most people.
Eventually, Nia bellowed and the work crew wearily threw their tools into the
Kubota's bucket and they all trudged home.
"I really love the new and improved clubhouse!" Kara enthused as they trooped in to
find Nia setting out hot fried slabs of meatloaf beside all the fixings a hamburger could
ever want.
The next day's roadwork was going along peacefully enough when Nia came racing up
like her rear end was on fire.
"Alex! Alex! There are kittens!"
Skidding to a halt on the not-yet-compacted gravel, she was narrowly missed as Alex
dropped her shovel and fled for the barn.
Alex had gotten very attached to the pretty barn cat, even getting her fingers sniffed not
two days ago. The gifts of plentiful food, fresh water and mostly peace and quiet had
reassured Mama B -as Alex had started calling her- that she was indeed safe.
Quietly letting herself into the cat pen, Alex listened carefully and heard little sounds
exactly where she had expected to. When setting up the space, she had deliberately set
three hay bales to make a little cave and from that space came quiet, birdlike cries.
"Hey, pretty mama, can I see?" Alex cajoled softly, silently threatening her fellow
clumsy monkeys to not make any noise, and laid out on her belly in the loose straw.
She scooted close enough to not quite block the entrance and laid her chin on her
crossed arms. As her eyes adjusted, she could see the black cat, eyes wide and panting
heavily. There were definitely squirmy little bodies already pressed to her belly, three
that she could see and possibly a fourth the same color as their mama.
Alex stayed like that, softly talking to and encouraging the cat while she worked hard
to deliver and clean two more kittens. Someone turned on the barn lights, which made
Mama B hunker down amidst her children, but her ears remained relaxed. When Alex
took a chance that birth hormones might have softened B up and reached in a relaxed
hand, she was able to rub softly between those erect ears.
Leaving her hand close, Alex watched the cats adoringly until she unknowingly faded
away to sleep.
There's no mistaking Alex drifting off after she reaches a hand into the hay cave where the barn cat
clearly must be. As the video fades to black, it abruptly lights up again to show a grinning Kara
standing on the road with the village behind her.
"So, Alex fell asleep guarding the kitties, which, seriously, cutest thing ever, but later let us know
that there are six kittens in all different colors and they all seem healthy. Stay tuned for more
updates on our newest arrivals to Rainbow Haven Acres! Bye!"
LL Not-Your-Neck-Of-The-Woods 1 minute ago
Cutest thing ever, indeed.
Poultry and Puns. May 16.
12846 views
Rainbow Haven Acres
Published on May 23, 2017
They'd finished up with the bare minimum of getting the road functional and dove
straight into moving the yurt and getting plumbing laid. With only two days to get that
done in, Team Lanvers had done little but work, sleep, eat and in Alex's case, visit
Mama B and her kittens. Hell, she'd slept more in the cat corral than her own bed
lately.
But feeling Mama B's purr under her fingertips had been worth it.
So, here they were at day… whatever this Tuesday was, and yet another contractor
was there to siphon thinning funds and provide desperately needed septic fields. Four
months without civilized plumbing was four months too many.
Alex couldn't imagine how the hell septic fields could possibly be interesting to their
internet audience, but nonetheless, she made sure that Brainy got some good footage
of the heavy digging and truckloads of pipe and crushed stone. So far, pretty much
everything they did had garnered at least some interest and the viewership numbers
continued to climb, slowly beefing up the checks from YouTube. It wasn't a lot, but it
was nice to have a tangible reward for the effort of making the damn videos.
Maggie was back again, gently persistent in her pursuit of winning a chance to woo
Lucy again. Prickly and temperamental as Lucy could be, she hadn't sent her ex away,
so they might stand a chance. Good, they were well matched if they could stop being
hotheads with each other. Alex had watched the whole rise and fall of the glorious
drama that was Sawlane -Lucy's moniker for them, not Alex's- and knew they could
mature into something real with a bit of time and effort.
Today, that wild pair could watch the contractor like a pair of hyperactive hawks and
learn all there was to know about septic fields. It would keep them occupied and
together.
Later, the whole team needed to get the damn saloon and its attendant shed up! They
were in desperate need of some good storage space that was sealed up better than the
old barn.
As for Alex, she had to go corral Kara away from her precious bees. They had halfgrown
chicks to tend to today!
While Alex's obsession lately might be the cats, Kara's remained her new hive and the
hordes of buzzy inhabitants within it. She had an affinity for it, her gentle, sunny
personality completely non-threatening to the bees.
So much so that she'd taken to tending them in shorts and a tank, only the veiled hat
wrapped around her neck and head. Most of the time, she would just sit in the grass
and watch them, utterly entranced. It was cute. Today, Kara had the lid of the hive
open and was fiddling with a gallon jug she'd stripped of its label to reuse for the sugar
syrup helping the bees out in these early days. Bringing up the camera Brainy had
pressed into her hands, Alex recorded the adorableness.
"Just a light syrup today, my bee-utiful girls!"
There was no mistaking the emphasis on 'bee' and Alex had to tease, "ugh, Kara,
really? Will you ever run out of bee jokes?"
Jumping a little, Kara looked over and grinned at her sister, utterly unfazed by the
camera. "No! Hive never felt this way bee-fore!"
"Oh, that one stung," Alex deadpanned and Kara laughed in delight. She carefully
poured the thin syrup into the special feeder box in the hive and closed it up before
walking over to Alex. Using her two inches of greater height to her advantage, Kara
wrapped an arm around Alex's shoulders and crushed her against her side. By the little
smile on her face, Alex didn't mind at all.
"And I can't help pollen in love with you!" Kara sang out dramatically and Alex had
joined her by the end of the chorus.
Giggling and carrying on and getting a lot of shaky footage, the sisters collected the
chicks where they had been living in makeshift pens in the barn to keep them out of the
chilly nights. They were comparatively huge now, easily half their adult size, and
nearly completely feathered out. Even if they did look like badly-dressed adolescents
in their scraggly feathers. They squawked and screamed and carried on at being
scooped up and piled into cardboard boxes, which were then carefully wedged into the
John Deere's front bucket for transport. Behind it was a new/old wagon salvaged from
the other farm's scraps, little more than a makeshift frame sloppily welded together by
Alex, wheels slapped on and a rough deck screwed in atop it. But it worked just fine
for what they needed it for. At the moment, it was hauling several bales of hay, some
construction supplies and a handful of poultry-specific feeders and waterers, already
well-scrubbed and filled up.
"So, we haven't really touched the coop since we built it," Alex explained as Kara stole
the camera as they made the short drive to the quartet of hoop house greenhouses.
"But we just need a few minutes to get some hay down on the floor and I did some
more reading and watching vids and there needs to be a few more roosting spots so
that everyone is comfortable. Kara, can you do the food and water?"
"Sure thing!"
With a mini-tripod wedged into a corner of the coop, the sisters busily took to their
tasks before gently spilling the bewildered chickens from their cardboard prisons. For
a few long moments, they just huddled, but the promise of fresh hay and sunshine
pouring in the big windows protected with more hardware cloth had them wandering
and scratching pretty quickly.
"Excellent!" Alex said happily as Kara grabbed the camera once again so they could
slip out. "We'll give them a few days to settle in and then give them access to one of
the hoop houses to have tons of space!"
"Don't you mean, egg-cellent?" Kara couldn't resist and the camera faithfully captured
her delighted laughter and Alex's dirty look.
Right at the edge of being in the contractor's way and vice-versa, Team Lanvers
focused on turning a slab of concrete into something functional. It was agreed that the
grungy shed would be larger and more valuable, so the pieces were dragged over by
the tractors. With Brainy on power washer duty, the rest of them set about drilling
anchor bolts into the slab and slowly piecing together the skeleton of the structure.
What should have taken a few days took the better part of a week as the rebuild was
the most annoying jigsaw puzzle. Maggie took some extra days off work to stay and
the six of them rotated tasks. Two on the shed, two on the saloon kit, one watching the
contractor -and taking a well-earned break- and one at other tasks such as meal prep.
Somehow, in just six days, the bare bones of the paired structures were up and roughly
sealed up from the elements allowing masses of supplies to be dragged in for
protection.
It was just one more welcome step completed in this chaotic new life.