I do not own any of the TWD characters.
Farm LIving Part 2
"Mmmmmm" Daryl whispered into the side of Beth's neck. "Got Damn, Baby". Beth had her legs wrapped around her husband's torso taking every single thing he was dishing out. At the same time, she was desperately trying to hold the head board in place to keep it from banging against the wall. Much to their embarrassment, the kids were used to hearing their parents "carry on" and they always just did their best to ignore it. However, they had an extra kid in their care at the moment and Beth was a little paranoid.
Beth squeaked out something unintelligible before managing to piece together, "Shhhh, I don't want the girls to hear us - let's not scar Hannah on her first visit here."
"Turn over" Daryl slapped Beth's ass, then slapped it again when she didn't comply quick enough.
Another loud squeak from Beth. "Daryl! Ow!"
"Turn ya fuckin ass over" he got a little louder.
"Daryl" Beth snapped, but she sure turned over real quick and stuck her ass up in the air. "This what you lookin for?" Beth teased.
"Don't rattle the bed as much like this" Daryl mumbled to himself as he pulled Beth in position so that they were now crossways on the bed. "There ya go Baby, there ya go" he murmured just as he slapped both ass cheeks again, just for good measure."Fuck!" Daryl blew out. "If that ain't a sight!"
"Godddddd, Daryl" Beth whined as Daryl entered her in one long stroke. "Please fuck me - hard Baby. I need it hard - been wantin you all fuckin week."
And who was Daryl to deny his wife anything?
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Of course, neither boy would look up from their plates at the breakfast table the next morning. Beth was a little bit embarrassed, but Daryl didn't give a fuck. The boys ate quickly and shoved what little was left on their plates into the scrap bucket for the chickens.
"Uncle Merle's waitin on ya'll" Daryl told his boys.
"Yessir" Micah responded. "That's where we're headed."
"We'll get lunch out to ya'll later on" Beth told her boys.
"Okay Momma" Jacob acknowledged as they stepped out the back door.
The week went on much as any other week on the farm. Heading into deep winter didn't mean there weren't still things to keep everyone busy. It just meant the work was usually made more miserable because of cold and wet conditions.
The girls got to sleep in a bit each morning before waking to Beth's gentle suggestions of how they might best "help" out that day. Even Hannah knew that Ms. Beth's so called suggestions were really a very sweetly packaged to-do list. Hannah didn't mind - she actually loved being so constructively busy. A normal winter break day for her back home in Atlanta meant screen time, emptying and loading the dishwasher, and maybe putting something in the oven for Daddy Jeff mid afternoon. Hannah was growing very fond of the country way of doing things.
The boys of the house, however, were still up and at it early. Merle, who ran the orchard part of the family business, always needed their help over Christmas break. While the majority of produce that the Dixon family, and their workers,lived off of was grown and harvested on the Greene portion of the farm. The market produce was raised and cultivated on the Dixon portion of the combined farm. Merle Dixon was kind of a big deal in the farmers market circles in the tri-state area (north western Georgia, northern Alabama, and southeastern Tennessee). Long ago, way before others jumped on the farm to table bandwagon, Merle had realized the incredible market potential of home grown produce with no middle man. People were willing to purchase their family's food locally and pay a little more for it if it was of high quality and somewhat economical.
Merle and Carol oversaw the peach production. Three acres of peach trees had been selected for fresh eating and canning. This was the majority of the product Merle sent to the surrounding farmers' markets and local restaurants. He even had some large accounts with area Mennonite groups that had their own small canning business that produced jams, jellies, and those type products - they were referred to as "value added products". Another five acres of peach trees were devoted to the varieties sought out by large scale canning companies - think DelMonte, Dole - those kinds of customers. Merle had scored a contract with Libby's for every peach he could provide, for the next ten years. That had been three years ago - and ever year since, they'd added at least a half acre of peach trees.
In addition to peaches, they raised impressive amounts of produce that you would typically see at major farmer's markets - corn, tomatoes, squash, zucchini, and pumpkins. They even had begun toying with hosting school and other small group field trips in the fall. Merle wasn't quite sure if he wanted to plunge into that endeavor all the way as all the research he'd done in that area indicated that the field trip side of things could really take over. He just didn't know if he wanted to trade in all that income from those organic veggie loving yuppie folks for the income and stress of a bunch of snot nosed screaming kids and stressed out chaperones. Yep, folks - ole Merle was a planner and a thinker, always had been.
Anyway, the whole point of that little blob of info was to let you know that the boys always had to help with planting new trees in the orchard, as you had trees being "retired" each season, and ole Merle wanted to have as many peaches as possible for that corporate customer. January and February was always devoted to pruning, so any other maintenance needed to Merle's place usually took place over Christmas break so the boys were available to help out. During the very brief peach harvest in the summer months, Merle usually had to bring in extra help. That always put Daryl's nerves on edge with all the extra unknown workers coming and going from the property. They didn't house these workers on the farm, but had a block of trailers in one of the trailer parks on the outskirts of town. Just about the time the peach harvest wrapped up, other farmers used those same workers for help bringing in tobacco, corn, beans. The owner of the trailer park was happy to keep his units occupied with sure payment. An added bonus was that if they caused any trouble at the trailer park, the farmers would fire them on the spot.
Regardless of where all the extra farm workers layed their heads at night, Daryl was always fit to be tied when it was that time of year. He usually tried to put Beth and Katie Raye on lockdown during that time - they outright refused, but you couldn't blame the man for trying.
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The girls had finally gotten up and had breakfast - they just wanted cereal that morning and Beth was happy for that since she'd already cleaned up the kitchen from breakfast.
"Do I smell tacos?" Hannah laughed.
"Yes" Beth smiled as she stood over a crock pot. "Walkin Tacos for lunch today - the guys really like them."
Beth talked with the girls as they ate and of course, they'd agreed to deliver lunch to all the fellas planting peach trees. In the meantime, the girls skedaddled back upstairs to do whatever it is pre teen girls do all morning long.
Beth figured she had time to make some phone calls to put some things in motion for the weekend.
"Mornin Merle" Beth chirped over the phone.
"Whatcha need Darlin?" Merle asked his sister inlaw. Merle wondered why Beth was calling him and not her own husband.
"I thought we'd have a fish fry Saturday night." There was no sense in beating around the bush with Merle Dixon. Hell, he already knew she wanted something or else she wouldn't have been calling him at nine a.m. on a Wednesday morning.
"Sounds good to me" Merle responded. "What time should I be there?"
Beth giggled. Yep. Ole Merle was going to make this just as difficult on her as he could. "Well, I need your help. Will you be my fry guy?" she asked sweetly.
"Dammit Beth" Merle grumbled. "How come Daryl can't be your Fry Guy?"
"You know why Merle" Beth sighed. Did they really have to relive the disaster that nearly burnt down the garage? "He's not patient enough to work with deep fried foods. OR, he gets distracted and burns it all up. We either risk food poisoning from undercooked fish or 3rd degree burns - there is no middle ground."
Both she and Merle are laughing now. "Carol and I will take care of all the rest - if you'll just fry the fish and hush puppies for me? Hannah's dads will be here to pick her up this weekend and I thought I'd invite a few more people."
"Alright Girlie" Merle finally agreed. "It's gonna cost ya."
"Yeh, okay" Beth huffed out. "Add it to my tab. I'd like to eat by 7, so plan accordingly." And with that Beth hung up.
"Damn" Merle mumbled to himself.
"What the hell's wrong with you?" Daryl asked his older brother. Daryl had counted out the peach tree saplings needed for the current row.
Merle just gave Daryl a dirty look. "Shut the hell up" Merle sniped at Daryl.
After disconnecting with Merle, Beth called Carol. "Mornin Carol" Beth sing - songed. "How are ya this fine day?"
"Uh, I'm figurin I'm about to get a little busier" Carol stated. "Am I right?"
"Why Carol" Beth feigned shock. "You sound just like your old man. What's with you two?"
"I'ts not our first rodeo", Carol laughed. "Okay, Suzy Sunshine - what are you plannin? And how deeply am I involved?"
"Fish fry this Saturday night" Beth started to lay out her plan to Carol. "It'll be Hannah's last night with us for a while - want to send her off in a big way."
"How 'bout I just come over there in a bit?" Carol interrupted Beth. "I've got to run to town to the post office real quick, but then I'll stop by your place."
"Okay - sounds good Carol" Beth told her. "Thanks!"
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The week had flown by.
Beth had spent some time with all three of the kids to see what their ideas were for handling the monthly food pick up with the workers. Beth was definitely going to hand that task over to them, but she wanted to share what had worked for her and what hadn't worked. Katie Raye had some really good ideas about using a spreadsheet to keep track of inventory, and even Hannah piped up with the notion that just having it at one centralized location now, instead of scattered between the two farms would be a major improvement. Beth realized she had two very bright girls on her hands.
Jacob and Micah continued helping their Uncle Merle with the peach tree planting while Hannah and Katie Raye got lunches delivered to them every day. Katie Raye finally got Hannah to go into the chicken coop with her. Hannah was certain that the chickens were going to peck her in the face and was scared to death of them. After one or two visits inside the coop with nothing bad happening, Hannah soon realized that she could handle that part of the farm chores as well.
Carol and Beth had organized and prepared for the Saturday night fish fry. The party had grown to pretty epic proportions. Beth invited Glen and Maggie, George and Josepha, Brad and Jeff of course and Merle and Carol. While Beth was on the phone with Josepha, she'd learned that their daughter had landed a job at Jacob and Micah's high school for the upcoming semester. Apparently, a teacher had resigned over the Christmas break.
This new piece of information set the wheels in motion for Beth to completely lose her mind and decide that it would be a good idea to play matchmaker. She invited Coach Miller! Beth thought the man was terribly lonely and if nothing else, Josepha's daughter could benefit from going into the school knowing at least one person. While Beth was calling people to invite, she called Rick Grimes whom she hadn't seen in forever. Rick inquired if he could bring a guest. Beth smirked because she'd been hearing some rumors about Rick and MIchonne Williams, the county attorney.
After that conversation, Beth figured she should call Carl and make sure that he and Sophia came as well. They had a standing invitation to any and all meals at the Greene Dixon Farms, but a phone call was always nice Beth told herself. Certain that she'd invited everyone that she should, Beth decided that Daryl deserved his favorite meal tonight because she was going to let him in on the party plans at bedtime.